Chasing Stars
by everafter1120
Summary: When twins, Juliet and Cameron started at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, all they had was each other. But they are soon torn apart by friendship, love, loyalty and a timeless school rivalry. A Marauders Story.
1. Prelude

"To the friends we have lost, the lovers who are gone, and the lives that have been both taken and spared." Juliet held her glass full of amber liquid in the air, listening to the man who was once her best friend give a toast, letting the tears roll down her cheeks. "To James and Lily."

"To James and Lily." She repeated with the crowd, pouring the fire whiskey into her mouth and letting it burn her throat. She felt a hand on her waist and opened her eyes to see Remus Lupin standing next to her.

"We missed you." He whispered. "He missed you."

"No, he didn't." She shook her head.

"He loved you. You know he loved you. And you loved him." He looked her in the eye, silently begging for her to believe him.

"I can't do this. I shouldn't have come." She turned on her heel and walked out of the dimly lit room, not looking at the two coffins as she passed them. She had known that coming to the funeral was a bad idea. That she was no longer connected to these people. But she had once loved them, as she had once loved the man in prison for their murder. But everything was different now, and that life was over. She was no longer a Marauder.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

As Juliet Thomson walked down the isle of the train she wished for the thousandth time in the last week, that she was still at home. After her father's death, Juliet's mother had fallen apart and finally moved both of her daughter's England. Juliet had grown up in France and couldn't imagine having to start a new life. Perhaps the hardest thing to deal with, in Juliet's opinion, was leaving her old school to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, in her seventh year.

"None of the compartments are empty" whined Cameron, Juliet's twin sister, brushing her dark hair out of her eyes. "Where are we going to sit?"

"You can sit with us" said a girl from the compartment right next to them.

"Lily!" Hissed the boy beside her.

"Oh shush you could stand to make a few new friends." she said. Juliet noticed nobody else was in the compartment. The girl had long ginger hair and brilliant green eyes. The boy at her side had almost black hair which was sticking up in the back.

" I like my friends" he mumbled

"If you don't want us to sit with you we'll find some where else." Snapped Cameron, looking down the isle, which was almost empty, because everybody else had already found a seat.

"Don't be silly," said the girl, " Come on in" Once they were seated the girl introduced herself as Lily Evans and the boy as James Potter. Before Juliet could introduce herself the compartment door slid open. Three boys were standing in the doorway.

"Who are they?" Questioned the skinny boy in front. His hair was light brown and Juliet noticed a scar running down his arm.

"I'm Juliet Thomson and this is my sister Cameron." she replied.

"Oh ok" he shrugged, eying the two girls, " I'm Remus Lupin" he sat down next to Lily who waited for the others to introduce themselves. When they didn't she sighed and pointed to the short fidgety boy on the left.

" This is Peter Petigrew, and this is Sirius Black" she said gesturing to the tall handsome boy standing in the doorway. He glanced at Juliet before turning and walking away. Peter followed and James stood and did the same.

"Don't worry about him" said Lily "He tends to be kind of moody"

"You think that's moody, that's no where close to how I get on a bad day" laughed Remus causing a look of shock on Lily's face that Juliet didn't understand. "So why have I never seen you around?" he asked attempting to change the subject.

"We just moved to England" answered Cameron.

"Oh so this is you first year at Hogwarts, what year are you in?"

"Seventh, at least we were at our old school."

"Oh, so you two have to be sorted with the first years then" said Lily with a laugh.

"What?"

"We have four Houses and . . . Oh you'll see"

Hours went by as the train passed over the English countryside. Just as it was growing dark the train started to slow. A small old lady was walking down the isle calling for first years to follow her.

"Excuse me, I . . ." Juliet started to ask but before she could finish her question was answered.

"Yes dear, transfer students too" said the old lady.

"How did she know what I was going to say?" Juliet asked Lily

"That's Madam Krystle, the divination professor, she knows everything." she answered before helping Juliet and Cameron gather their luggage.

The twins along with about one hundred eleven year olds were lead onto small boats that held about four people each. The second the last person stepped on a boat they all instantly started floating across the giant lake. After the boats went through some low brush there was a universal gasp. Juliet had never seen anything like the Hogwarts Castle. Their old school had been nothing compared to this, which both excited and terrified Juliet.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Slythern" cried the hat atop Cameron's head. She stood up and walked over to the table on the far right that was decorated in colors of green and silver. She sat down between a pale boy with light blonde hair and a beautiful girl with long dark hair and dark eyes..

"Lucius Malfoy" said the boy to her left, offering his hand.

"Bellatrix Lestrange" said the girl

"Cameron Thomson"

"Is that your sister?" he asked glancing up at Juliet who was now wearing the sorting hat.

"Yeah, that's Juliet, she's my twin"

"Huh . . . Never would've guessed" this was a typical reaction. Although the two girls looked very similar, Juliet had light blonde hair, while Cameron had dark brown. However, they both had matching bright blue eyes.

"Gryffindor" cried the hat. Cameron watched as the only person that she knew in the entire school walk to the table on the opposite side of the room.

"Oh . . . I'm sorry about that" said Lucius following her glance

"About what?" she asked slightly confused

"She's in Gryffindor" the girl replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Just then an old man with log white hair and a long white beard stood up at the front of the room which was instantly quiet. "Welcome back to Hogwarts." He said "I hope you all had a nice vacation. This year the usual rules apply, first years have already been informed of them and I am sure everyone else remembers them. So without any further adue, because I am sure that you are all as hungry as I am, let us eat." With a clap of his hands the gold platters on the tables instantly filled with food.

"Stupid git" said Lucius after the speech was over

"You don't like him?" questioned Cameron

"My grandfather should have been made Headmaster, not that stupid old fool"

After dinner Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, instructed the prefects to lead the rest of the students back to their common rooms. The Slytherns were lead into what seemed to be a dungeon. The prefect stopped in front of a bare wall and aid "Pure-Bloods" at that a hidden door in the stone wall slid open to reveal a beautifully furnished common room.

"So what do you think?" Lily asked Juliet once they were in the bedroom which they shared with Molly Weasly, Alice Longbottom, and Dolores Umbridge.

"About what?" replied Juliet who was busy unpacking her trunk.

"Hogwarts, silly"

"Oh, right . . . well it's nothing like my old school"

"Is that a bad thing?" questioned Lily

"No, I mean I loved my old school, I'll miss my friends, but I think I'll like it here." Juliet smiled

"Good. So I'm meeting James and the others in their room, you should come"

"I don't want to intrude" said Juliet which was only partially why she didn't want to go. She wasn't sure the others liked her so much.

" Don't be silly" said Lily who grabbed her arm and pulled her out of their room "you're coming" together they walked down their flight of stairs, across the common room and up into the boys' room.

"Hey Lily . . ." said Remus as they walked in "and Juliet right"

"Hi" said James kissing Lily and glancing at Juliet

"So how does Hogwarts compare to your fancy French school?" Remus asked sitting on his bed

"Well it's a lot bigger here. I'm never going to be able to find my way around."

"Just wait until you're wondering around in the dark, then you'll be really lost" he laughed

"Don't listen to him," Said Lily, "they tend to cause trouble"

"We do not!" said James pretending to be offended

"Oh you don't" said Lily raising her eyebrows

"No we make the school more interesting" said the handsome dark-haired boy that Juliet recognized as Sirius Black, standing in the doorway. "Who's that?" he asked

"It's Juliet she . . . "

"And why is she in my room?"

"Excuse me, I'm right here," Juliet spoke up, "stop talking about me as if I'm not."

"Ok then," he said turning to her, "why are you here?"

"Well . . . Uh . . . Because . . ."

"That's what I thought"

"Sirius, stop it" said James

"What if I don't want to stop"

"What the hell is your problem" said Lily

"At least I know where I'm wanted," he said now turning to Lily, "I'm not hanging onto something that's never going to happen"

"Sirius"said Remus standing

"Fine, Screw you guys" he said storming out of the room

"It's late, we better go" said Lily looking down so that nobody could see the tears in her eyes. "He's not usually like that" she continued as they walked down the stairs. She froze at the bottom seeing Sirius standing in the common room watching the fire. Lily burst into tears and ran into the girls' dormitories.

"Who do you think you are?" said Juliet storming up to Sirius

"Excuse me?" he said looking down at her.

"What makes you think you can treat her that way?"

"You don't know what you're talking about." He replied turning away

"You treat her like shit and . . ."

"Don't talk about things you know nothing about"

"I know I just got here, but I don't understand how you could hate her so much."

"I don't hate her," said Sirius turning back to face her, his eyes glowing in the fire light."She's one of my best friends"

"Then why would you say something like that?" Juliet asked confused.

"She's to good for him"he said looking down

"You love her?"

"No" he laughed "we're just friends, but James treats her like crap, she shouldn't deal with it."

"Then tell her that . . . "

"I've tried" he said the concerned look in his eyes quickly faded, "this is none of your business."

"Right . . . sorry" she said turning to go upstairs but then stopped and turned back to face Sirius "Whys do you have a problem with me."

He shrugged and almost smiled but caught himself, "I just don't trust you"

"Oh" she said finally leaving.

Juliet wasn't sure what she had expected classes to be like at Hogwarts, but they were exactly the same as they had been at her old school. She found Potions and Charms easy and the rest were occasionally hard but she had no problem keeping up.

"Hey Juliet, are you finished with your Transfiguration paper yet?" James asked her one day during free period. She was about to hand it to him when Lily snatched it out of her hand.

"Don't let him copy it. It's like feeding a dog leftovers, do it once and he'll always beg for more." Juliet gave James an apologetic smile and went back to reading. He shrugged and started on his paper again. A few minutes later when Lily ran up to the dormitory to get a book Juliet slid her transfiguration paper over to James. He smiled gratefully and quickly copied it.

"Wake up." Cameron groaned and rolled over. "I said, wake up." She opened her unwilling eyes to see her roommate Bellatrix Lestrange standing over her. The room was dark with the exception of her glowing wand.

"Whayouwan" there was a giggle, Cameron didn't know who it came from, but she felt the presence of other people.

"Get up." Bellatrix ordered

"Why?"

"Because I said so." She was giggling as well.

"Why?"

"She doesn't have to come." Said a vaugly familiar voice.

"I want her to come." Said Bellatrix.

"Come where?" Cameron finally sat up. There were about six girls in her dorm, her other three roommates who were still asleep.

"Just come on." Bellatrix grabbed her hand and pulled her off the bed. Together the girls crept down into the common room. There were a few boys already down there, Juliet recognized them all but the only one who she actually knew by name was Lucius Malfoy.

"Welcome," he said, walking over to her, "to our little club."

"Club?"

"The Elite, We are the best that Hogwarts has to offer" he smiled proudly. Cameron was waiting for a smirk to cross his face, for him to tell her that she was not as good as them. But it never happened. He slung his arm around her shoulders and brought her around the room introducing her to everyone. As time wore on, the room was growing louder and the fire Whiskey was growing thin. Lucius pulled Juliet aside.

"Are you having fun?" he really seemed to want her to be having a good time.

"Yes."

"Good. Do you want to dance?" There was no music but a few couples were dancing together in the middle of the common room.

"Sure." Instead of leading her toward the other couples he wrapped his arms around her and started to dance right where they were. "Lucius?"

"Yes?"

"Why did you want me to join your club?"

"Because we liked you."

"Who's we?"

"Bellatrix and myself mainly. But everyone else will like you to."

"Okay" she said, enjoying the slight buzz from the fire whiskey she leaned into him and continued to dance.


	4. Chapter 3

Juliet had been at Hogwarts for nearly two weeks. Lily had quickly become her best friend and her and Remus were becoming closer every day. James, had warmed up to her quite a bit since she had let him copy her home work, but he didn't let his friends know it. Sirius, on the other hand still didn't seem to trust her. He ignored any thing that was said about her and when he wasn't pretending she didn't exist he would shower her in insults. And Peter, who tended to follow Sirius' example seemed to just plain hate Juliet.

Cameron was also quickly making friends. Bellatrix Lestrange, was becoming one of her best friends, along with Lucius who always seemed to be around her.

"Excuse me, both Miss Thomsons, Miss Evans, Mr. Lupin and Mr. Malfoy could I have a word with you please?" requested Professor Slughorn, the potions professor, after a lesson one day. "Now Juliet and Cameron, being new to this school, you would not know about the "Slug Club." It is basically a small group of selective students getting together on occasion, for tea or even a party. The two of you have exclusive invitations to join. And you three," he continued looking at the others, "I would like to inform you that our first party is this Friday night at 8:00, I hope to see you all there" he concluded handing out invitations.

On the way out of the classroom Juliet stopped Cameron.

"How are you?" she asked, they had not had a chance to talk since they had arrived on the train.

"I'm fine, how are you?" she replied looking over her shoulder at Lucius who was waiting at the end of the hall.

"I'm pretty good, How are your classes?"

"Everything's good. Look I kind of have to go. I'll see you around, okay"

"Yeah okay" Juliet answered as the two girls turned opposite directions to leave.

"What did she want?" asked Lucius as Cameron approached him.

"Just to say hi, we haven't talked for a while. Why?"

"No reason" he replied and they walked in silence for a few moments until he suddenly stopped. "Cameron, Listen" he started, "I know we haven't known each other for very long but I. . . . I really like you" His words didn't surprise her, she had kind of expected as much, but they way he said it was unlike him. He was always so Confident and secure. It was weird seeing him so vulnerable, but it was sweet. "I need a girl who people can respect and look up to . . ." he continued nervously "including myself. That girl is you" he finished, looking her in the eyes for the first time since he had begun to speak. Cameron opened her mouth to reply but before she could speak her lips were on hers in a soft kiss.

"Are you going to Slughorn's party?" Juliet asked as she Remus and Lily walked down to the great hall for dinner.

"I guess, I've been going since first year, they say that everyone in the 'Slug Club' ends up either famous or successful." Replied Lily

"How about you?" Juliet asked looking at Remus

"Nope, I'm busy, what a shame" he said sarcastically receiving a glare from Lily "Are you going?"

"I was thinking about it. It would be a good opportunity to make friends"

"Trust me, those aren't the kind of friends that you want to have"

"How would you know," said Lily "You haven't gone since third year"

"Yet Slughorn still insists on inviting me, I wish he'd take the hint. I have no desire to hang out with a bunch of snobby rich kids who Slughorn believes will one day be famous enough to make him look good just for favoring them when they were students"

"Hey"

"Not you Lily, he does have some good taste"

"Thank you"she replied beaming as they walked into the Great Hall.

"Hey Remus, can we talk?" asked a boy that Juliet recognized as a fellow Gryffindor. She had never seen Remus talking about but she had occasionally seen James and Sirius throw him dirty looks.

"Uh . . ."

"I'm sorry Jackson, but he's busy right now" Lily said sharply

"No. . . It's fine, I can talk" said Remus letting Jackson lead him out of the Great Hall

"Were's Remus?" questioned James as Juliet and Lily sat at their house table

"Talking to Jackson"

"What does he want, I thought they were over" replied James looking both pissed and worried.

"Wait, what's going on?" asked a confused Juliet receiving a sigh from Lily before her answer.

"Well, Jackson is Remus' ex boyfriend. They were together for almost a year before he . . . Uh . . . found out something about Remus. He just stopped talking to Remus and as far as I know they haven't talked since. It nearly broke his heart, Jackson was the first long term relationship that he'd ever had. We just don't want to see him hurt again"

"I hate dealing with him, when he's upset. He's hard to control" said James who received a shocked look from Lily, who then glanced at Juliet, looking as though she hoped that she hadn't heard. Juliet was becoming quite used to the feeling that she was missing something. She would walk into a room and the subject would instantly change or when someone accidentally said something, that Juliet couldn't decipher anyway, they would all look panicked. Juliet hated feeling out of the loop. She knew Remus was gay and she didn't care, but she couldn't see him let some guy treat him like crap.

"So who's Mooney. . . I mean Remus making out with in the hall way" said Sirius joining the group. Juliet hadn't missed the glance he gave her as he corrected himself.

"Jackson"

"What, but . . . What the hell is he thinking. If he can't deal with . . ."

"Sirius, calm down," said Lily " You know he's not going to listen to us. Jackson knows everything and maybe he decided that he could deal with it"

"But he can't deal with it, we already know that"

"That's up to Remus and Jackson"said Lily trying to calm him

"Who's going to be there on Friday night with Mooney, not Jackson"

Juliet had a million questions going through her head but she kept quiet until her and Lily were alone in their room.

"Whose Mooney the boy's keep saying the name, and Padfoot, and Prongs and Wormtail? And what's going on with Remus, is everything ok? I can help. Why don't you guys trust me?"

" They're nicknames that the boys have for each other, Remus is Mooney, Sirius is Padfoot, James is Prongs and Peter is Wormtail. As for what's going on with Remus, that's for him to tell you not me. But he'll be alright. And we do trust you, but you have to know once you're in our group, there's no getting out. You're a Marauder forever. That's not supposed to sound as scary as it does, but it's true. Just know what you're getting into." Lily finished. Juliet had the feeling that this speech had been given to Lily by someone before.

"Are you alright?" Cameron had walked into the bathroom to find a pretty blonde girl, who didn't look much younger than herself, sitting on the floor crying. The girl looked up at Cameron and instantly started crying harder. "Whats wrong?" Cameron sat beside her and placed her hand on the girl's arm.

"Get off of me you stupid whore." The girl yelled at her before storming out of the bathroom.

"I see you met my sister Cissy." Bellatrix was standing in the doorway.

"Yeah, I think we'll be great friends."

"Don't take it personally, but she kind of hates you."

"How is that not personal?" Bella laughed. "I'm kind of afraid to ask but why does your sister hate me?"

"She was kind of dating Lucius. That is until you showed up."

"But he-"

"He ended it, a few days after school started. I think after he realized he had a chance with you."

"Oh." Cameron felt guilty for stealing someone else's boyfriend, but it wasn't like she meant to do it.

"Don't stress about it too much. They were together more out of convenience than anything else. They are both attractive and everyone wanted them to be together, so they were." Bella put out her hand to help up Cameron, who was still on the floor. "It's early and we don't have class tomorrow. Lets track down your boyfriend and one of his cute friends and get something to drink." Cameron laughed and took her hand.


	5. Chapter 4

"Are you ready yet? I'm sure you look beautiful as always" Lucius yelled up the girls stair way. It was Friday night and Cameron was getting ready for Slughorn's party.

"Give me a second" She called down the stairs as she looked in the mirror one last time. She was wearing the black silk dress that her mother had bought for her to wear to her 17th birthday party, her sister had a matching one in pink. As she walked down the stairs she noticed how Lucius' face light up as he saw her.

"Hey are you almost ready?" Asked Lily glancing at Juliet. "You look great."

"Almost" She replied sliding on her heels and fixing her hair for the thousandth time. This was her first real social event at Hogwarts and she was surprised at how nervous she was.

"Come on" said Lily dragging her out of their room.

As Juliet stepped into the common room she instantly started to blush. Remus, James, Peter and even Sirius were staring at her. "Wow, you look great." said Remus, "Both of you"

"Oh, yeah, you look great Lily" said James who had yet to look at his girlfriend. Lily didn't seem to notice that every guy in the Common room (and a few girls) were staring at Juliet.

"Remus are you sure you can't go?" asked Juliet hopefully

"Sorry I have a prior engagement" he laughed

"We're going to be late" said Lily, glancing at the clock above the fireplace. "Lets go" the second the two girls stepped out of the portrait hole they heard a voice behind them.

"Juliet can I talk to you for a minute"

"Sirius, we're already late" said Lily obviously annoyed

"Why don't you go along to the party. I'll make Sure Juliet gets there safely" he replied with a mocking innocence. Lily glanced at Juliet, who nodded, before starting away. The second Lily was out of sight Sirius turned to walk the opposite direction.

"What do you want?" Juliet questioned, following him. He stopped and looked her in the eye.

"I want to apologize for the way I treated you" he said

"This was Lily's Idea?"

"No" he said "It was Remus's"

"Well thank you so much for you sincere apology" she said sarcastically then screamed as the staircase that she was standing on started to move.

"Why do you have to be like that" said Sirius walking down the still moving staircase.

"Well I wouldn't be like this if you weren't such a bloody asshole, then were forced to apologize for it"

"Do you really think I would have apologized to you if I didn't want to" he said causing Juliet to stop and turn to look at him. For a second she almost believed him, but then she remembered how he had treated her over the last few weeks, like she was just a stupid girl who he had to deal with to keep his friends happy. To an extent, she realized, that's all she was to him.

"Leave me alone." she said turning and walking down the corridor, "I'm late for the party"

"Juliet, come on" he said following her through a door way. "Shit"

"How the hell did we end up out here" said Juliet wrapping her arms around her in the cold. They were standing outside the castle next to a large willow tree that seemed to be moving against the wind.

"Nice job" Sirius laughed "It took me until fourth year to find that door. Come on we need to get back inside before someone sees us." he said walking towards the front of the castle

"Where are you going, we came out right here" said Juliet turning to realize that she was facing a bare stone wall "What happened to the door?" Sirius laughed to himself like it was the most absurd question and continued walking, leaving Juliet no choice but to follow. When she caught up with him, Sirius took off his leather jacket and put it around her shoulders. It was only October but it was freezing outside so Juliet gladly slid her arms through the sleeves. They were silent for a few moments then Sirius suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Juliet asked confused

"Shhh"

"But . . ."

"I said shut up" it was silent but then Juliet heard what Sirius had heard a second earlier and gasped. It was a low growl but Juliet couldn't tell where it was coming from until she saw the huge dark figure that was coming toward them.

"Run" said Sirius pushing her toward the forest that was behind them. And she ran. As she entered the forest she turned around to see that the large figure which she which looked like a large animal fighting something. She almost screamed but then realized that it couldn't be Sirius, it looked more like another animal. Juliet turned, praying that Sirius had somehow escaped. She ran as fast as she could into the dark forest.


	6. Chapter 5

"First of all I would like to thank everyone for coming, and second I would like to welcome all of our new members" Said Professor Slughorn proudly looking around the room full of students. "Now I will let you all get back to socializing. Have fun every one. That is why we're here after all" he finished stepping of the stool which he was standing and waddled over to the corner were Cameron and Lucius were talking quietly.

"Hello Professor" said Lucius slightly pulling away from Cameron, "How was your summer?"

"Fine, Fine, Mr Malfoy, thank you for asking." he turned his eyes to Cameron, "Well don't you look lovely tonight, Miss Thomson."

"Thank you sir" she replied taking Lucius' hand not liking the way her teacher was looking at her.

"And were is your sister tonight? I'm afraid I have not seen her" Slughorn questioned. This was typical, thought Cameron, all anyone ever cares about is Juliet.

"I don't know where she is." she replied harsher than intended. "We don't have much of a chance to talk." this was at least half true. They were in the same Potions and Care of Magical Creatures class and they saw each other during meals but they still didn't talk. Cameron had no desire to associate with the mudbloods that her sister had befriended.

"Well I'd better be going" Slughorn said turning and walking over to the Redhead girl that Cameron remembered from the train. "Miss Evans, could we have a word"

"Come on, I need a drink" Cameron said pulling Lucius towards the punch bowl.

"Here" he said pouring a shot of Fire Whiskey into her cup and laughed at the relieved expression on her face as she downed the drink. "Hey where'd you get that" he said talking her hand which bore the ruby ring that she always wore. It seemed to be glowing.

"My father gave it to me." She replied looking at the ring. "Just before he. . ." she stopped but Lucius knew what she was going to say. Her father had died three years ago, Cameron didn't talk about him much.

"Come on lets dance" he said pulling her onto the almost empty dance floor and wrapping his arms around her waist.

Cameron looked around her as she danced. Slughorn was right, Juliet had never shown up to the party.


	7. Chapter 6

Juliet was running in circles. The forest was dark and she had no idea where she was. The only light was from the full moon which was barely showing through the trees. She stopped to catch her breath and realized that she was shivering. She wrapped herself in Sirius's leather jacket and slowly spun in a circle trying to figure out how she was ever going to get out of the forest. When she stopped she was facing a large black dog. She almost didn't notice it. It's dark fur was blending into the darkness that surrounded it. She jumped when it started barking. But it's eyes were focused on a spot just behind her. She had to cover her mouth to mute a scream when she heard a low growl behind her. The dog started to run then it attacked the creature standing not ten feet away from Juliet.

Juliet started to run, she silently thanked the dog that had very likely saved her life. Juliet became aware that there were footsteps behind her. She turned terrified of what she was about to see. It was a large white stag. It took a few steps toward her then turned and walked in the opposite direction. Juliet followed it, unsure whether it had been the stag's intention. Suddenly she saw the vast castle in the distance and was flooded with relief. The stag turned to face her then ran off.

Juliet took a few steps toward the castle when she heard a moan. She turned to see what it was when she heard that terrifying growl. Staring right at her was a large grey werewolf. She couldn't move. Although everything inside of her told her to run, she couldn't. The werewolf slowly approached her. She took a step backwards and tripped over her long dress. She hit the hard cold ground and the wolf was standing over her growling. Tears were running down Juliet's cheeks, she felt around her and found what she was looking for. She picked up the large rock and hit the werewolf in the face. She stood and ran as fast as she could. The wolf was suddenly on her, she grabbed another rock to fight it off but she saw a flash of white and it was gone. She turned to see it pinned to the ground by the stag that had lead her to the castle. The world was spinning. Juliet felt the ground move from beneath her and everything went black as she collapsed onto the forest floor.

"Juliet, are you okay?" she hard a voice ask.

"Get her to the castle" she heard someone else say. She was lifted and everything started to spin again.

Juliet woke up in the Gryffindor common room. She could hear voices whispering from the corner.

"Will she be okay?" it was Lily

"She should be fine, he didn't bite her, just scratch her up a bit" Sirius responded

"She did quite a bit to him too" James said

"She should be in the hospital wing" Lily said sounding worried, "you all should"

"Were fine Lil, were use to it" James laughed

"It's never this bad, he's getting worse." she said

"Why don't you go to bed Lily, it's almost morning, and sleeping in class is simply unacceptable" Sirius said in a taunting tone.

"You guy's should be the ones to get some sleep, It's been a long night."

"Fighting Mooney couldn't be nearly as bad as going to Slughorn's little party." Sirius said laughing.

"You know some of the finest students to ever graduate Hogwarts were part of the 'Slug Club'" retorted Lilly.

"We know" Said James "You tell us constantly"

"I don't see why you refuse to go, your head boy and. . ."

"And he has great expectations blah. . .blah . . . blah . . ." Sirius mocked. " now off to bed with you"

"But what about Juliet"

"We'll take care of our sleeping beauty, now go."

"But. . ."

"Go!" the two boys replied in unison. Juliet assumed she had listened because there was no more debate. Soon James could be heard snoring and Sirius walked over pulled a chair close to the couch Juliet was laying on.

"You can go to bed" she said in a strained voice

"You're awake" he said surprised "how do you feel?"

"Fine" she said sitting up and realizing how un-fine she actually felt.

"Lily healed you a little but there is only so much a wand can fix. Now lay down you look like you're going to be sick." he put his hand on her shoulder to softly push her down.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked suddenly

"I'm always nice"

"No you're not. You're usually a self centered jerk."

"Don't we get pissy when we're in pain"

"I'm not in that much pain"

"Liar, nothing hurts like a scratch from a werewolf, especially a mad one."

"What makes you such an expert" said Juliet noticing blood dripping from a large cut on the side of Sirius' face. "Are you okay?"she felt bad for giving him such a hard time, he was obviously in as much or even worse pain then she was.

"I'm fine, now tell me where it hurts" he said taking on a mock doctor like tone.

"Mostly on my side" she said pulling down her blanket to see a large tear in her gown and bandaging already on the wound. Her light pink dress was covered in crimson blood and black and brown dirt.

"Lily bandaged you up a bit." said Sirius glancing at her nearly fully exposed midriff. "where else does it hurt."

"My arm" she lifted her right arm which bore a large cut which did not appear to be caused by the werewolf.

"That's it"

"Well my head hurts a little but besides that I'm pretty good" she answered.

"You're sure"

"Well my whole body kind of aches" she said getting annoyed with all his questions.

"That's normal, your body is tying to get rid of the poison" he said choosing to ignore the annoyance in Juliet's voice. "The poison is. . ."

"I know" Juliet had paid enough attention in DADA to know that a werewolf's claws had poison to weaken it's prey. Besides the initial weakness (and allowing a werewolf to kill you) it was harmless."I think I'm going to go to bed" she said sitting up.

"Only if you can make it up those stairs by yourself. I can't go up there" replied Sirius

"No one will know if you-"

"It's not that I'm afraid of getting in trouble. I physically can't go up the stairs. They turn into a slide if any guy tries"

"But I've been In your room"

"It's a trust thing" Sirius shrugged. Juliet looked at the girls' staircase and decided that there was no way of her getting up it by herself. "I'll tell you what. Why don't you sleep in my bed. James is down here, I'll kick Peter out of the room, he won't fight with me, and Remus is asleep I'm sure, but it's not like he'll try anything."

"I can't do that, it's your bed, you shouldn't have to-"

"I'm not going to leave you down here. If you go to my room at least I get to sleep on the couch." he said making her smile

"Fine" she said and he lifted her.

"I'm sorry." he whispered as he climbed the staircase.

"For what?" she asked confused. He hadn't been the one to attack her.

"I should have just let you go to he party."

"But you didn't know."

"But I should have." It didn't make since to Juliet but she was to tiered to ask any more questions. She was asleep before he laid her on the bed.


	8. Chapter 7

Juliet awoke with a start the next morning. She vaguely remembered what had happened the night before. Looking out the window she realized that she must have missed at least half of her classes.

" Morning" mumbled someone from the bed next to hers. She realized that it was Remus and remembered Sirius telling her to sleep in his bed.

"I should go"

"Dumbledore knows that you're not going to classes today. He wants to talk to us when we're awake." He said sitting up in his bed with a yawn. He wasn't wearing a shirt and Juliet noticed that he was covered in cuts and bruises.

"It got you too?"

"What?. . ." he followed her gaze to his chest. "Oh. . . right. I guess you could say that"

"What exactly happened last night?"

" I think we should leave the explaining to Dumbledore" Remus stood and walked to the bathroom door "you should take a shower and get dressed. You look like crap"

"What are you looking for?" Lucius asked. Cameron had been looking for Juliet all day. She had missed breakfast and their Potions lesson.

"My sister, she never showed at the party last night and I haven't seen her all day."

"I'm sure she's fine" Lucius responded but not looking convinced.

"What do you know?"

"Well she's been hanging around with the Marauders. They're not exactly known for their good behavior."

"Either are you, but I haven't gone missing" she retorted more worried than angry.

"Look, as useless as that oaf Dumbledore is, he's made this school one of the safest places in England. Your sister's fine, she's probably not feeling well. She'll be at Breakfast tomorrow, you'll see."

"I hope so" said Cameron taking Lucius' hand

"What are you doing here?" questioned Filch the school's young caretaker as Juliet and Remus approached Dumbledore's office.

"Professor Dumbledore wanted to see us" replied Remus

"Oh, fine then." he said with his classic grimace "Butterscotch" the eagle statue that the group was standing in front of, moved to reveal a winding staircase. Remus and Juliet made their way up the stairs and knocked on the Large oak door at the top.

"You may enter" Dumbledore's office was large yet cramped with hundreds of trinkets and knick knacks of all shapes and sizes. "I assume you know why you're here"

"Yes sir" both students responded. "First of all, Mr. Lupin, after you were admitted to Hogwarts we discussed how your ability would effect your living on school grounds. Now, you told me that you could control yourself"

"I can sir but-"

"Now Mr. Lupin I would appreciate it if you would let me finish"

"Yes sir"

"You said that you could control yourself, and that as long as you would be allowed to leave the school grounds when necessary, nobody would be hurt. Now I am aware that some of your friends have willingly put themselves in danger to help you, and they know the risks, but Miss Thomson was severely injured and could have even been killed. She, unlike Mr. Potter, Mr. Black and Mr. Petigrew, had no choice in the matter. This occurred last year and I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I am sorry Mr. Lupin, but I cannot allow this to continue. I have discussed your situation with Professor Slughorn and he has agreed to provide you with proper treatment"

"It's not a disease, you can't just make it go away" yelled Remus angrily

"No, we can't make it go away, but there is a potion, that will stop the transformation"

"Professor, I can't . . ."

"Then I will have to ask you to leave the school, I can't risk the safety of my students"

"I have no where to go, you know that."

"Then I suggest, Mr. Lupin, that you allow Professor Slughorn to make you the potion. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir" replied Remus looking close to tears.

"Now Miss Thomson, I am aware that you were wondering around school grounds after hours last night. Is that true?" Said Dumbledore, turning to Juliet.

"Yes sir, but I can explain-"

"There will be no need for that. It is not the first time, nor, I am sure, will it be the last. But without knowing, Miss Thomson, you put your self in fatal danger. Are you alright?"

"Yes Sir, I will be fine"

"Alright then, the two of you may either go back to your common room or to the library fore the rest of the day. I assume that you are both well enough to go tho Hogsmead tomorrow. And if that is all, I have an appointment very soon and I need to go find a book in the library." both students turned to leave.

"Sir?" said Juliet stopping and turning back to face Dumbledore. "What exactly happened last night?"

"You were attacked by a werewolf" he responded simply.

"But what does that have to do with Remus?"

"That is for him to tell you, not I. Good day Miss Thomson, Mr. Lupin." The two left in silence.

"It was me." Remus said suddenly. "I'm so sorry, I would never hurt you. You know that right, but I can't control myself and. . ."

"Calm down" Juliet comforted "What was your fault, the werewolf? You couldn't have known-"

"No, Juliet," He said taking her hand "I am the werewolf." he looked down in guilt as Juliet pulled her hands from his.

"What are you talking about?"

"When I was nine, I was bitten by a werewolf. For some reason I was accepted at Hogwarts anyway. Every full moon, Sirius, James and Peter, take me out of the castle and through a passage to the Shrieking Shack. You'll see what it is on our trip to Hogsmead tomorrow." He explained for the bewildered expression on her face. "I'm so sorry, something went wrong last night. Sirius was with you and James an Peter couldn't control me by themselves. It's a good thing that Sirius saw me when he did or he never would have been able to fight me off. Remus was rambling but one thing caught Juliet's attention.

"Sirius fought you? When you were a. . . He should be dead. . . But how. . ."

"He's done it before. Plus he's a lot stronger when he's changed." Remus stopped realizing that he had gone too far. Sirius should tell her, not him. But it was a little late now.

"What are you talking about? You're not making any since. Sirius can't be one to. I was with him and. . ."

"Okay, I guess I have to tell you" Remus sighed " After they met me, James, Peter and Sirius taught themselves how to be animagus'. You saw them last night."

"The stag? And the dog?" Remus nodded " but which one's which. And that's only two."

"James was the stag. And Sirius was the dog. Peter is a rat, but he wasn't much help last night." Juliet was both confused and intrigued "Come on, we better get back to the common room." They walked in silence for a few moments before Juliet stopped in shock. She looked at the tall figure in front of her not believing what she saw.

"Father?"


	9. Chapter 8

"Father?" the room was spinning, the only thing that Juliet could focus on was the man standing in front of her. He was just the way she remembered him. Tall, pale skin, dark hair, darker eyes, yet still incredibly handsome. But that man, the one she remembered had died three years ago. He was in a terrible accident, that's all her mother would tell her.

"_Juliet, Cameron, Could you come down here for a second" Mary Thomson yelled up the flight of stairs at her twin daughters. _

"_Yes mum" the two fourteen year old girls came bounding down the stairs laughing._

"_I'm afraid I have some dreadful news." a single tear escaped Mary's eye, the note clutched in her hand. "There has been an accident, your father, he was killed." The girls just stood there to stunned to move, or even cry. Their mother had just informed them that their father was dead, and she did it without a bit of emotion in her voice. That was just like her. All she cared about was her appearance. She would mourn later, in the loneliness of her own room. _

_Cameron was the first to break the silence "What kind of accident?" she asked fighting to resist the lump in her throat. _

"_It does not matter dear, I will not upset you with the details, why don't you go to bed early tonight, I'll have the maid send you up supper, or perhaps ice cream if you'd like, how does that sound?" the girls turned without a word to walk up the stairs, into their separate bedrooms. Not five minuets later there was a rapping on Juliet's door. The door slowly opened and Cameron walked in and crawled into bed next to her sister. _

_The funeral was arranged for three days later. Juliet and Cameron stood there on the warm, sunny day staring at the tombstone which read their father's name_.

"Juliet?" he took a few steps forward and lightly touched her face. She moved away. Tears silently sliding down her cheeks. "What's wrong?"

"You died"

"What are you talking about, I'm right here."

"Three years ago, you died, you're dead"

"Juliet"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you make us think you were dead"

"I didn't, your mother did" he said slowly stepping toward her again

"But, you left, with no contact, of course she thought you were dead." this didn't make since, her mother had said he was killed in an accident, but he survived.

"Your mother knew I was alive, she chose to tell you other wise, it was easier for her I assume."

"Easier than telling us you left her, left us." Juliet was yelling now.

"Juliet, dear" he started, taking her hand "she left me"

"She wouldn't do that."

"But she did, I can't say I blame her"

"You could have visited, or wrote"

"She told me not to, your mother has her ways of getting what she wants, you know that."

"But there had to be some way," Juliet searched her father's eyes for the answers that she had never been given, and the truth that she had been denied.

"If there was, I would have found it, I tried, I did, but it was no use" Juliet embraced her father, the man that she had thought dead for years. The man who used to tuck her in at night and let her practice magic with his wand when no one was around. "I have to go dear, I have an appointment with Professor Dumbledore"

"Dumbledore, why?"

"I am applying for a teaching position at Hogwarts" he grinned. "We can meet tomorrow, in Hogsmead, at the Hogshead, at around noon, alright. And bring your sister." Juliet nodded and watched her father say the password to the eagle statue, then walk up the winding staircase, as she had done moments earlier.

"Come on, we should go" said Remus who had retreated earlier to give Juliet and her father some privacy.

"I need to find Cameron"

"She's in class now, wait until dinner."

"Remus, this can't wait any longer, it's already waited for over three years." Said Juliet walking down the hallway

"Were are you going, there are no classrooms down here" Said Remus almost jogging to keep up.

"I'm going to Slughorn's office, he'll know were the slytherns are right now." she stopped and knocked on the office door.

"Come in"

"Professor, where are the seventh year Slytherns now?" she asked only to receive a confused look. "It's important, I need to talk to my sister."

"I believe that this is your sister's free period. Is anything wrong?"

"No everything is fine, I just need to talk to her." Juliet turned trying to figure out how she was going to get into the Slythern common room.

"Miss Thomson, are you sure everything's all right. You never came to the party last night. And you are now apparently skipping class."

"Oh, right, I'm sorry that I missed your party I. . . uh wasn't feeling well last night. And Professor Dumbledore knows that I'm not in class right now." she answered attempting to leave again.

"Well then, I will see you on Monday in class then."

"Yes sir" the second Juliet was out of the office she was running, Remus was struggling to keep up. She turned down the corridor which led to the dungeons then stopped realizing that she still had no way of getting in to see her sister.

"Aren't you Cameron's sister" said a voice from behind her. Juliet turned to see Lucius Malfoy, who Cameron seemed to be rarely seen without.

"Yes, hi I'm Juliet, I really need to talk to my sister, it's important"

"Come with me," he said walking down the torch light corridor. "You stay there" he said grimacing at Remus who glared at him in return, but stayed where he was. Apparently Lucius disliked Remus as much as Remus disliked him. When he stopped suddenly he turned to face a bare stone wall. He glanced at Juliet before covering her ears with his hands. He must have said a password because a hidden door slid open. As Juliet stepped into the large common area she noticed that everyone was looking at her with disgust except a few guys who were looking at her entirely differently. She crossed her arms over her chest self-consciously, feeling completely out of place (and hated) in her Gryffendor robes.

"Juliet?" Cameron stood and approached her sister. "What happened to you, you never showed up last night and. . ."

"Never mind that. We need to talk. In private" she added looking around her. She followed Cameron into her room, were she locked the door and sat on her bed

"What's going on? First you disappear, then you come waltzing in to the Slythern common room with my boyfriend. . ."

"I ran into someone today. Just now"

"And you felt the need to tell me this why? You're a klutz, you run into things all the time-"

"No not literally, I mean I saw someone." Juliet interrupted

"Well who? I really don't see why this couldn't have waited."

"It was our father" Cameron didn't speak for a moment. She looked confused, almost scared. The last time Juliet remembered seeing her sister like this was after they were told that their father was dead.

"What do you mean?" her voice seemed so small

"He's alive, I saw him, I talked to him"

"This isn't funny Julie" Cameron shook her head, tears were rolling down her cheeks.

"You think I'm lying? I saw him. I swear to Merlin."

"Juliet you were dreaming" she said regaining control of herself. "Our father's dead Julie, he's dead and gone, forever."

"He wants to meet us tomorrow, at the Hogshead, I'll be there with him at noon. Come, please come."

"I don't know"

"What's there to know?" Juliet questioned "He's your father"

"I don't think you should go either"

"What? If you don't want to see him after three years than fine, but I'm going."

"I just don't want you to get hurt"

"Why does everyone feel the need to protect me? I am perfectly fine on my own" Juliet now also had tears in her eyes.

"I know, but. . ."

"I should go" Juliet cut off her sister, not wanting to hear her excuse.

"Julie-"

"You really should come tomorrow." Cameron lowered her head. "Good bye Cam."

"Good bye Julie"


	10. Chapter 9

"Hey, is everything ok?" asked Lucius as Cameron wrapped her green and silver scarf around her neck.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Juliet and I just got in a little fight, that's all."

"Oh, well you should go talk to her. She's just up there," He pointed towards her twin sister. They were walking the short distance from the school to Hogsmead.

"No, I'll talk to her later. We're meeting at the Hogshead around noon. Where is that by the way?"

"I'll show you were it is. I didn't know you were meeting her, is that why she needed to talk to you yesterday?"

"Kind of"

"Well do you want me to go with you?"

"No" she said a little too quickly "I need to go by myself"

"Ok, if you're sure" he said wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Juliet!. . . Hey Juliet. . . Slow down" Sirius ran up next to her. "What's the hurry"

"What?" mumbled Juliet just now noticing his presence. "Oh, hi Sirius, what's up?"

"Nothing. Are you ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Why?"

"Because you seem a little, I don't know, distracted" he lightly grabbed her arm so that she would stop. "Something's wrong"

" I know you saved me the other night and everything, but that doesn't change anything" she looked into his eyes which changed from concerned, to confused, then to almost hurt.

"What are you talking about? There's nothing to change." he said, his eyes recovering from their brief show of emotion.

"You treated me like shit and-"

"I thought we'd been over this"

"You can't just say that you're sorry and expect everything to be alright."

"But Juliet, I ignored you for a couple weeks. I didn't know you and I didn't want to. But now-"

"I don't care why you did it, you shouldn't have and why should I have to forgive you just because you came back!" Tears were slowly sliding down her cheeks.

"Juliet. Are we still talking about me?"

"Of course we are. Who else would we be talking about."

"I don't know. You tell me." he said wiping the tears from her face.

"I. . . I can't" she shook her head slowly.

"Come on, We should get going. Let's start at the Three Broomsticks I'll buy you a drink. A good fire whisky sounds good about now."

"It's eleven o'clock in the morning and we're under age."

"Oh right. Well to the Hogshead then"

"What does that change?" she laughed

"Cause the beauty of the Hogshead is that nobody gives a shit." he put his arm around her and led her into the small village.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay" asked Lucius asked as he pulled open the door of the Hogshead pub for Cameron.

"I'm sure. I'm Just meeting with Juliet. I'll find you later ok." She responded kissing him on the lips and smiling.

"I still don't see why you have to meet her here. You guys could've gone to the Three Broomsticks like every other student. She shrugged avoiding the same question for the third time today. Honestly she had no idea why her father had chosen to meet here.

"Just Go" he kissed her again and then turned to leave.

"If you're not at Honeydukes at three I'm coming back here to look for you." He said glancing back at her over his shoulder.

"Go. I'll be fine. I promise" she laughed shooing him out the door. She turned around and immediately lost all confidence. At least ten creepy old men were staring at her. She made her way through the smokey pub toward the small table in the corner at which Juliet sat with another Gryffindor.

"Hey Cam. Sirius you should go." Juliet smiled up at him.

"Ok, if you say so" he smiled back. "I can wait at the bar if you want."

"No, but thanks. I'll be fine. You should go find Remus, and the others."

"Ok then. Bye. Find me later ok." he said standing

"Ok"

"So who was that" Cameron said the moment Sirius was out of ear shot

"It was Sirius" Juliet shrugged. "I know what your thinking. He's Just a friend"

"Yeah like Johnny Hartman was a friend until you made out with him at mom's Christmas party last year." she giggled

"Cameron!"

"What?"

"Oh never mind. He's here" Juliet nodded to a man who was walking toward their table. He had deep blue eyes like the twins but his hair was nearly black. This was defiantly their father. With the exception of his hair color he looked almost exactly like his daughters. Only twenty some years older and a man.

"Hello" He said as he approached the table. "Cameron, you came. I've missed you so much" Cameron looked at her father who kissed Juliet an the cheek as he sat down between his daughters. "Juliet I can't tell you how glad I am to have seen you yesterday."

"Did you get the teaching position?" Questioned Juliet hopefully. If he taught at Hogwarts then she could see him every day.

"I'm afraid not. Professor Dumbledore does not seem to think that I would make a good teacher" he shrugged.

"Didn't you grow up in London? Did you go to Hogwarts?" Juliet asked. Her and her father had much more in common than she knew.

"Yes, I went to Hogwarts. That was a long time ago though. I was in the Slythern house. Like you Cam."

"How did you know what house I was in?" She questioned still not trusting the man who claimed to be their father.

"Dumbledore told me." He said simply. He glanced at her hand and smiled. "You still wear that ring I gave you" It was true. Cameron wore her ruby ring wherever she went. Juliet had a matching emerald ring which she also always wore. Juliet heard a tapping and turned to look out the window to her left. Remus was standing outside knocking on the window to get her attention.

"I'll be right back" She said standing and leaving the pub to see what Remus could possibly want. "What?" She questioned when she turned the corner to see him. "You know how important this is to me."

"I think it's a trick." he said obviously feeling bad for ruining her meeting with her father.

"You think what's a trick." Juliet tapped her foot impatiently.

"I don't think he's your father." He looked at Juliet fully aware of the anger in her eyes. "There have been rumors, about a dark wizard rising to power. What's the likelihood that your father comes back now. When a dark wizard is looking for followers."

"No. He's my father. He came back for me." there was doubt in her voice "I don't believe you, why are you lying to me?"

"Juliet, why would I lie?"

"I'm going back inside."

"Juliet"

"Leave me alone Remus" she stormed back into the pub just in time to see her father leaving.

"Where are you going?" asked Juliet

"I have to leave" Replied her father kissing her on the top of her head. "I don't know when I'll be back but I'll write."

"Okay. Where are you going? I want to write you to."

"No don't. I don't know where I'll be. Good bye" Then he left. Juliet had the feeling that she was losing her father for the second time.

"What did you say to him?" Juliet questioned Cameron. "It's your fault he left"

"Julie, don't see him again ok."

"What? Why? You don't think he's our father either do you?"

" I know he's our father, but he's not the man who we grew up knowing and loving. He's changed, Julie. Mom must have had a good reason to kick him out or she never would have. You know that." Cameron stood to leave.

"I don't care what he did to piss her off, he's our father."

"Our father left us three years ago. If he's back now he wants something. Just be careful until you know what it is." Cameron smiled at her sister then turned to leave. "Bye Julie, we really need to see each other more often, I miss you." Juliet nodded. "I love you"

"I love you too Cam."


	11. Chapter 10

"Everythin' alright?" Juliet was still standing in the crowded pub allowing tears to slowly drip off of her face. She looked up to see the largest man that she had ever seen staring back at her with concern.

"Yeah, I'll be fine" Juliet smiled up at him before tuning to leave.

"Excuse me, bu' who was tha' man who you were meeting with?"

"My Father, why?" answered Juliet.

"What's yer name? If yeh don' mind?"

"Juliet Thomson" normally she wouldn't go around telling strange men in pubs her name but for some reason she instantly trusted this guy.

"Oh, I'm Rubeus Hagrid." He shook her hand. His hands were at least times the size of hers.

"Why were you asking about my father" Juliet asked him.

"He looked like someone I knew from school. But never mind. It's not him"

"I'd better go. It was. . . uh. . . nice to meet you"

"You too" He said smiling through his bushy beard. Juliet took a deep breath as she walked out onto the busy street.

"Shit" Cameron wasn't paying attention and had tripped in the middle of the crowded street.

"Are you ok?" one of Lucius' friends came walking over to her trying not to laugh and helped her up.

"Yeah I'm fine" she said laughing at herself. Julie was usually the clumsy one. "It's Morgan right?"

"Jonathan" he said. " Morgan's my last name."

"Oh, sorry." Jonathan was tall and muscular with short light brown hair. He was kind of cute. Ok he was really cute.

"So why aren't you with Lucius?" he asked

"We don't do everything together." Cameron insisted. They were only together during classes and during meals, and when they did homework, and on the weekends and . . .wow, Cam realized that she really needed to get some girlfriends, or spend more time by herself . . . or both. "Do you want to get some coffee?" She asked thinking a new friend would be good for her. "If you're meeting someone or something, it's fine." she added when he looked hesitant.

"No. . . I mean yeah, I'd like some coffee."

As Cameron walked into the coffee shop she noticed Juliet sitting with that Lily chick and waved receiving a curious glance from her sister. Well why wouldn't she, she did have a boyfriend and she was with another guy. But he was just friend. She could have a guy as just a friend. Right?

An hour and two cappuccinos and a piece of pie later Cameron and John left the coffee shop still laughing at their waitress who had been wearing a frilly bright pink dress and had even brighter pink hair.

"What's going on?" Cameron heard a cold voice that instantly made her stop laughing.

"Lucius"

"Morgan, Why are you with my girlfriend?" ordered the tall blonde boy standing in front of Cameron and John.

"We were talking" he answered not looking his friend in the eyes.

"Talking. You were talking to my girlfriend while I was running all over the place looking for her, I was worried sick."

"Lucius, it's my fault, don't take it out on him"

"Come on we're going back to the school" demanded Lucius grabbing Cameron's arm.

"What if I don't want to go back?" She retorted fighting to loosen her arm.

"Fine. Go be with Morgan if you want. We're over. But don't come crawling back to me." Lucius turned on his heal and stormed back up to the school.

"Lucius" Cameron called as she started to run after him.

"Don't" Said John putting his hand on her shoulder to stop her. "Give him some time to cool off. I'll talk to him later. Okay." Cameron nodded as John put his arm around her.

"I'm sorry. It's my fault he's mad at you."

"He's always mad at someone. At least we're in it together this time." John laughed and so did Cameron.

"Merlin, I can't believe him." Juliet vented. Her and Lily were standing outside of the Quittich shop waiting for James to pick out new flying gloves. Juliet had spent an hour at the coffee shop explaining the situation with her father and how Remus thought he was just trying to trick her.

"He's trying to protect you. I mean it is kind of strange that your father would suddenly come back after three years." Lily reasoned.

"But he didn't come back for me. I ran into him at school. He had no idea that I was even there."

"Are you sure. I mean I really hope that he's your father, and you would know better than anyone if he is or not, but it would be a good trap. A dark wizard sees the opportunity to recruit two young followers."

"But why would he go through so much trouble to recruit us. There must be a hundred other students at Hogwarts who would join a dark wizard in an instant."

"Well I don't know about Cameron, but you, you're one of the most talented witches at this school. Maybe the twin thing makes your magic even stronger." Juliet took in what Lily was saying. When they were young Cameron and Juliet could do things together that not even their parents could do. But apart they weren't all that much more talented than anyone else. Ok maybe she was being modest. She was an excellent witch and so was Cam, but she had never really thought much of it. She had always assumed that it had to do with bloodlines or something. Their mother was a pure blood and she assumed that their father was too. He never talked much about his family. Juliet made a mental note to ask him next time she saw him. If she ever saw him again that is.

"You girls ready to go?" said James walking out of the shop and throwing his arms around both girls shoulders.

"Yeah" said Juliet still thinking about her father. The three of them headed back to the castle together laughing at James' corny jokes.


	12. Chapter 11

As Juliet sat down at the table for breakfast an awkward silence fell over the group of friends. Juliet was still mad at Remus for not trusting her judgement about her father, Lily and James were bickering as usual, about homework or something and Peter looked like he was trying very hard to avoid conflict.

Juliet's jaw dropped as she saw Dolores Umbridge, one of Juliet and Lily's roommates, enter the Great Hall. She had a slightly chubby face that tended to look remarkingly similar to a toad when she was angry. Her perfectly curled blonde hair was topped with a pink bow as usual and she was sporting hot pink pumps. But that is not what surprised Juliet, that was just how Dolores dressed, but what had shocked Juliet was that Dolores' perfectly pink manicured hands were entwined with who else but Mr. Sirius Black's.

"You've got to be kidding" Said James after Dolores kissed Sirius on the cheek and pranced over to a group of girls at the end of the table.

"What? You've dated worse" retorted Sirius who received a glare from Lily.

"Whatever, your just dating to be sure that your going to get some action on Halloween night."

"James!" gasped Lily at the same time that he was hit in the head by a roll thrown by Juliet.

"What? With the exception of Bellatrix Lestrange, Dolores Umbridge is the biggest slut in the school. Despite her prissy, and way too perky behavior. "

"Is that all you straight guys think about?" said Remus rolling his eye causing laughter from everyone, even Juliet.

"You think you're so much better than us, just because you're gay" laughed Sirius also receiving a roll to the head. "Hey!" Soon everyone in the group was throwing rolls at each other until Professor Slughorn had to come over and ask them to stop after being hit in the back of the head.

Suddenly a hundred owls swooped into the great hall to deliver the morning mail. A copy of the Daily Prophet dropped in front of Lily as usual and a large package wrapped in plain brown paper fell in front of Juliet. She looked at the package in front of her with confusion, no body ever sent her anything except the seldom letter from her mother. She tore open the package to reveal a gorgeous white dress and a matching mask. She picked up the note laying on top of it and read:

_Dear Juliet,_

_I am aware that the annual Halloween Masquerade is quickly approaching. I thought that his gown would be the perfect gift, hopefully you don't already have something to wear. I hope that you enjoy yourself. I will write again soon. _

_Love_

_Your Father_

Juliet lifted her eyes to Cameron to find her looking back. She too had a package laying in front of her yet she did not seem to be very happy that their father had kept his word.

"Maybe I was wrong" said Remus glancing at Juliet who smiled at him in return.

"So what's this about a Masquerade?" Asked Juliet

"There's one every year on Halloween night."

"Oh, well why haven't they made an announcement?"

"Because it's not a school thing. The student's sneak out on Halloween night into the forbidden forest." replied James in a hushed voice.

"Why am I just hearing about this now?"

"Nobody really talks about it. They don't need to. If your invited you just know about it."

"So only the people who are invited know?" Juliet questioned intrigued.

"No" Laughed Sirius, "Everyone knows about it, but they aren't really supposed to"

"It's fun the girls have to dress in all white and the guys in all black. No one can show their face." Said Lily

"Then how do you know who your dancing with?"

"That's half the fun."

"Oh," sighed Juliet, "I don't understand why my father would send me a dress though. It's not like I'm invited"

"Of course you are" Said Sirius, "Your family has been coming to Hogwarts for hundreds of years like mine, and Remus'."

"So?"

"So you only have to be a fourth generation to be invited. I just make the cut." said James.

"What about Lily?" Asked Juliet glancing at her best friend who wasn't only a first generation student at Hogwarts, but a first generation witch.

"Oh, I'll go as James' date" she responded. The group grew quiet as Dolores came back to sit next to Sirius.

"Did you miss me?" she asked in her high pitched voice.

"Of course" replied Sirius causing Dolores to giggle and everyone else to want to gag.

"What's with the dress?" asked Jonathan sitting down beside Cameron.

"Oh, it was a gift from my father." she replied glancing down the table to look at Lucius. "Have you talked to him yet?"

"I tried but he won't talk to me. I don't know what he's so upset about."

"He's mad at me, not you. I should have found him after meeting my sister."

"It's not your fault" replied John " He likes to control everything around him. He was more pissed about you not listening to him than you hanging out with me." Cameron shrugged. Yes Lucius did tend to be a little controlling but she shouldn't have stood him up to be with another guy. But maybe John was right.

The next week flew by, and Cameron found herself standing in front of the mirror in her bedroom getting ready for the Halloween Masquerade.

"Come on aren't you ready yet?" Whined Bellatrix. While Cameron had been getting dressed for the last hour, Bellatrix had walked into the room not five minutes ago, squeezed her small body into her even smaller dress, smudged some liner around her eyes and was ready to go. "You look great, by the way." she said tossing her long jet black hair over her shoulder.

"Really? I don't look too. . . I don't know"

"You don't look too anything. I love that dress." Cameron was wearing the long white dress that her father had sent her. She wasn't planning on it, but Jonathan had finally convinced her. What was the use wasting a perfectly good dress, even if it had been a gift from her father who had pretended to be dead for the last three years. It really was a pretty dress and it looked amazing on Cameron.

"Crispus" said Lily with her wand pointed to her head. Her hairstyle changed instantly.

"How many times are you going to do that?" Juliet laughed

"Until I find one I like" Lily responded "Purpura" Lily turned her wand toward Juliet who's blonde hair instantly turned purple. After changing her hair a few more times Lily finally decided on a pretty updo. Juliet, after turning her hair back to it's natural blonde color, charmed it so that it fell in lose curls. She slid on her dress and looked at herself In the mirror smiling.

"That really is a pretty dress" commented Dolores who was wearing a huge dress with about ten too many bows.

"She's right" agreed Molly, another one of Juliet's roommates who was wearing a dress that looked old but somehow made it look more vintage than used. Molly was a sweet girl who's family didn't have much money, but she never really seemed to mind. She made up for her slightly out of date wardrobe by being nice to everyone and incredibly funny. Her dark, frizzy red hair was currently being tamed by Alice, the fifth roommate. Alice was quiet but always really sweet. She too was dressed to go to the Masquerade. They had all just finished tying their masks around their faces when Remus appeared in the doorway. The whole collapsing staircase thing didn't apply to him apparently.

"Are you guys almost ready? We gotta get going." He said "Like now" he added when the five girls started to run around the room making sure they were ready. The group walked down the stairs to see a group of about thirty dressed in white dresses and black dress robes. It was midnight, but several students were peaking their heads out of their doors to see the group of students leave, all dressed up, than appear again, after a long night, not thirty seconds later. A spell was cast to stop time for the night, until the party was over.

The group tiptoed down the main staircase in total darkness meeting with other students from the other three houses. The main door was opened, everyone held their breath praying that it wouldn't make a sound, even though everyone else in the school was frozen in time. About a hundred Hogwarts Students ran across the school grounds talking and laughing with excitement. It was sure to be an interesting night.


	13. Chapter 12

Music was blearing, but where was it coming from? The trees? The ground? The Stars? Did it really matter? Juliet laughed as she twirled in a circle as she danced with some guy who's name she didn't know and face she didn't recognize. Of course he _was_ wearing a mask. Honestly, Juliet could care less who she was dancing with, she was having too much fun to even think about asking who he was. It was nearly pitch black, the only light coming from the moon, shining above the trees and a slight fog was rising from the ground.

Cameron was dancing with who she assumed was Jonathan, of course she couldn't be sure, when she felt someone tug on her hand. She turned to see Bellatrix standing behind her and instantly started dancing with her best friend.

"Are you having fun?" yelled Bella over the music

"Yeah I'm having a blast" Responded Cameron, "What about you?"

"Me too. I've already made out with at least five guys" she laughed sipping her drink which was bright red and was lightly smoking.

"At least? Did you lose count that quickly?"

"Well two of them might have been the same guy"

"Whore"

"And?" Bella giggled accidentally bumping into Cameron and causing her to spill her bright purple drink down some girls dress. The girl seemed oblivious so Cameron shrugged than looked down at her empty martini glass and pouted. She then took the drink out of Bella's hand and started to sip it. "Hey that's mine"

"Well mine's spilled down the back of some girl's dress. I can't drink that, can I?" The two girls went into hysterics.

"Dance with me?" Remus heard someone whisper in his ear. Well actually it was more of a normal tone of voice, but it was so loud here that it sounded like a whisper. Remus turned and wrapped his arms around Jackson and started to dance. "I'm sorry" he said

"About what?" questioned Remus

"How I treated you last year. It was wrong."

"You've already apologized"

"But you haven't forgiven me" Remus smiled at his exboyfriend, not really wanting to worry about what had happened last year.

"Just shut up and kiss me"

"Have you seen James?" Lily asked walking up to Juliet who she hadn't seen in hours.

"You lost him?"

"Is that so surprising?" Juliet took her friends hand and started to dance. She glanced around her looking for James but there was no point, every guy here was wearing solid black dress robes and a black mask. Soon she forgot about James, and apparently so did Lily. They danced, grabbing drinks as they floated by on trays. Suddenly Juliet was grabbed from behind. As she turned to see whose arms were circling her waist, a pair of lips covered hers. She pushed the guy away trying to figure out who he was. Apparently he had no idea who she was either because he mumbled "Shit sorry" before stumbling away in a drunken confusion. Juliet laughed to herself before turning back to dance with Lily. Only Lily was gone. Juliet shrugged before turning to dance with another guy whose name she didn't care to learn. They danced for a while, not talking. Juliet giggled as he took her hand to twirl her. And he laughed when she tripped and landed in his arms.

"Hey" Juliet heard Dolores' high pitched voice beside her.

"Hi" Juliet replied with fake smile before turning back to dance with the guy who still had his arms around her waist. Dolores didn't move. "Are you having fun?" Juliet asked still dancing.

"Yeah" Dolores sounded slightly annoyed. What did she have to be annoyed about. She was the one who was forcing Juliet to waist good music by talking to her. "Do you mind if I cut in?" Wait, was she serious?

"Go find your date"

"You're dancing with him" Dolores replied rolling her eye.

"Huh?" Juliet looked up and realized that she had been dancing with Sirius for that last half hour.

"Hey" he said laughing, with that familiar twinkle in his eyes. Juliet moved aside to let him dance with his girlfriend, and decided to try and find Cameron. After a few steps, she glanced over her shoulder and noticed that Sirius was still watching her. She smiled vaguely and walked away.

"Aren't you Cameron's sister?" someone asked into Juliet's ear.

"Yeah, have you seen her?" she asked the pale blonde haired boy.

"No. Dance with me" he wrapped one arm around her waist and started to dance.

"Aren't you Cam's boyfriend?" she questioned, recognizing him.

"Nope" he said, Juliet could tell that he'd had a few to many drinks "Not any more" Juliet didn't feel comfortable dancing with her sister's ex, especially since she was sure that they had been going out just a few days ago. She wiggled her way out of his arms and told him that she was going to get a drink and would be back in a few minutes.

"Julie" she heard someone yell

"Cameron" she called back, looking for her sister, who pushed her way through the crowd. "Hey, are you having fun?"

"Yeah. We're you just dancing with Lucius?"

"Yeah I think. He just started dancing with me. Sorry."

"It's fine, we broke up." Cam shrugged

"Yeah, he said. What happened?"

"He's an ass, that's what happened." Cameron laughed. "Dance with me"

"I've been dancing all night. My feet are killing me" Juliet whined, but danced with her sister anyway. "What have you been up to?"

"Dancing and drinking mostly. And you?"

"About the same." Suddenly the music stopped. Everything was quiet for a moment than everyone began to run. Juliet and Cameron looked at each other in confusing then followed. Juliet felt a hand wrap around hers.

"Look up" said Sirius from beside her. Juliet turned her eyes to the sky and saw a hundred shooting stars all going the same direction.

"What are we doing?" she noticed that groups of students were running and jumping into the black lake.

"Chasing Stars"


	14. Chapter 13

Juliet was shivering as she climbed out of the freezing water into the even colder October night. If time had not been stopped, she was sure that it would already be morning. She had been dancing, drinking, and then swimming for hours. Juliet looked up and noticed that the stars that had been shooting through the sky were gone and now all she could see was the crescent moon glowing above the castle. Arms wrapped around Juliet from behind and she looked up into the eyes of Sirius Black. His dripping, dark brown hair was matted around his face as he smiled down at her. Laugher was coming from behind them as a hundred drunk teenagers splashed around in the black lake. Juliet spun around so that she was facing Sirius. His hands touched her face, lifting her mask and pushing her soaked blonde hair out of her eyes as his lips met hers.

"I hurt" whined Juliet sitting down at the Gryffindor table for lunch. She, and everyone else who had been at the ball last night had opted to skip breakfast and sleep a few extra hours. She had a throbbing headache, felt like she could puke at any given moment, and was almost positive that she had caught pneumonia from jumping into the freezing lake last night.

"Hangover's a bitch" laughed Remus with his arm draped around Jackson's shoulder.

"Stop being so perky?" said James sipping his Pumpkin juice looking like he was in as much pain as Juliet. Remus didn't drink and now Juliet was starting to understand why.

Sirius walked into the great hall, late as usual, with bloodshot eyes, messy hair and Dolores Umbridge on his arm. Wait, What? Juliet didn't remember a lot of what had happened last night but she clearly remembered Sirius kissing her. And from they way he was looking at her, he hadn't forgotten either. He sat down across from her and smiled vaguely. Dolores's normally perfectly curled hair was limp and the ever present pink bow was missing. About half of the school's upper classmen, the ones who had been at the masquerade last night, looked equally disheveled, Juliet and the other marauders included.

"I'm going back to bed" Juliet rose from the table and walked out of the great hall, leaving the untouched food on her plate. Once in her empty bedroom she flopped down onto her bed and was grateful to have the soft pillow under her head.

"Hey" she heard a voice and jumped.

"How did you get up here?" she asked looking at Sirius standing in the doorway.

"I have my ways." he said sitting on the end of her bed.

"You should go before a teacher see's you." she rolled over not wanting to look at him anymore.

"How often do you have professors in your room?" it was silent for a moment. "Juliet, come on. I'm sorry."

"About what?" she looked at him

"About last night."

"What about it?" she said sharply. She wanted him to say that he was sorry for kissing her and then totally ignoring it, but she seemed to have a different effect on him. He looked hurt that she didn't remember, than quickly recovered. Hiding his emotions was one thing that Sirius Black was good at.

"Throwing you in the lake" he replied without looking her in the eyes "you said you didn't want to get wet but I threw you in anyway."

"Right. It's fine. I only got a little sick." she said deciding that she wasn't going to tell him what she remembered.

"So is the hangover worth it?" he laughed

"Yeah. I had fun last night."

"Good" He laid his head on the pillow beside Juliet's "Listen, I really am sorry about how I treated you at the beginning of the year. I was a jerk. But I've always liked you, whether I showed it or not." The room was silent. "Juliet?" He looked at the girl laying beside him and realized that she was asleep. He kissed her on the forehead before closing his eyes and falling asleep himself.

Cameron woke up and instantly realized that she had no idea where she was. She sat up and the room started to spin.

"Are you ok?" asked a familiar voice.

"Jonathan? Shit, what happened last night." She looked down at herself, and realizing that she was wearing only a bra and underwear, hugged a pillow to her body to cover herself up.

"You don't remember?"

"No" she replied slowly before realizing that even if she couldn't recall _everything_ that happened last night, she did remember coming up to Jonathan's room and. . . Holy shit. Ok now she remembered. This was so not good. "You took advantage of me!" she accused.

"I did not. You took advantage of me!" he retorted

"Oh." she said standing to search for her dress "Are you sure?"

"Well. . . no. I don't really remember much." He admitted.

"Me either. Did you, wear a. . . you know"

"Uh. . ." He walked over to his dresser pulled out a box of condoms and counted what was inside "I don't think so"

"Idiot!"

"It's not only my fault"

"Well I shouldn't have to tell you what to do. I'm not your mother!"

"I'd hope not" Cameron stopped for a second to glance at Jonathan and then burst into laughter. "Wait I'm confused. What's so funny"

"I don't know" she said tears forming in her eyes from laughing so hard.

"You're insane" said Jonathan starting to laugh as well. Soon they were both rolling around on the floor in laughter.

Cameron was laying on the floor trying to catch her breath from laughing, when Jonathan, on the floor beside her, turned his head and kissed her. She kissed him back.

"James Potter, why does Olivia think that she made out with you last night?"

"Lily, stop yelling at me. It really hurts."

"Well then answer me. Did you or did you not make out with Olivia?"

"I don't think so."

"YOU DON'T THINK SO!" she practically shrieked "HOW COULD YOU NOT REMEMBER?"

"Lily" James whined holding his hands to his throbbing head. "The yelling really needs to stop. I think it's going to make my head explode."

"GOOD!" Lily turned on her heal and stormed up the girls' staircase to her bedroom. "Oh" she gasped when she saw Juliet and Sirius laying in a bed together, both fast asleep.

"Lily" James called after her, causing Juliet to stir.

"Whatsgoinon" she mumbled groggily.

"Nothing, go back to sleep."

"Sirius" whispered Lily having absolutely no effect on him. "Sirius" she said a little louder. This time he just turned over, ignoring her. "Sirius!" she practically yelled causing him to roll off the bed in panic and confusion.

"Wha?" he asked in a dazed tone, rubbing his eyes.

"Go sleep in your own bed." Lily ordered

"But this one's so much closer" he said standing and attempting to lay back down beside Juliet who seemed totally oblivious to everything at the moment.

"Now!" she said pushing Sirius out of her room. He stumbled and the second he absent mindedly stepped on the stair case it collapsed and he slid down to the common room, scaring a group of first year girls and sending James, Remus and Jackson into hysterics.

"Shit" said Cameron rolling out of Jonathan's bed and landing on the hardwood floor.

"What the hell is going on in here?"

"Lucius, I can explain" said Jonathan, looking up at his best friend.

"You can explain why you're fucking my girlfriend?"

"You broke up with me." Said Cameron, standing, than grabbing a sheet, realizing that she was wearing even less clothing than she had been earlier that day.

"Because you are a fucking slut." With that Lucius stormed out of his bed room, leaving Cameron in tears.


	15. Chapter 14

When Juliet woke up, she quickly realized how long she had been asleep. The window next to her bed showed that it was dark out side and her four roommates were all asleep. She climbed out of bed, wide awake and realized how hungry she was. Well she hadn't eaten since dinner the previous night. The clock hanging on the wall next to Lily's bed read 3:00 and Juliet wondered what time the great hall was open for breakfast. She tiptoed down the staircase and almost screamed when she saw someone sitting on the couch in front of the fire.

"Sirius?"

"Juliet? What are you doing up?" he looked startled to see her. Well why wouldn't he be. It was three o'clock in the morning.

"I kinda slept all day. I'm not so tired anymore."

"Oh right. Me too." He smiled up at her.

"Do you have anything to eat? I'm starving." She asked sitting next to him.

"Sorry." He shrugged, "But I know where we can get some."

"Really? Where?"

"The kitchen. The house elves will make you anything you want."

"Do you realize what time it is?"

"And your point is?"

"Curfew was about six hours ago."

"We won't get caught. Are you hungry or not?" Juliet's stomach rumbled answering his question. "That's what I thought." Sirius grabbed Juliet's hand and practically dragged her out of the common room. Together they crept down the dark, empty hallways towards the kitchen. They turned down a hallway that Juliet had never noticed and stopped in front of a picture of fruit that took up most of the wall. Sirius touched a pear, which wiggled a little before the painting moved to reveal an entrance to the large kitchen.

"How did you know to do that?" Juliet whispered.

"I have my ways" he responded with a grin, Juliet rolled her eyes.

"What can I do for you?" squeaked a voice. Juliet looked down to see a small creature with pointed ears and a large nose. She recognized the house elf standing in front of her. "Tawny?"

"Miss Juliet" the house elf bowed to her.

"You know each other?" asked Sirius with raised eyebrows.

"Tawny used to work for my aunt, until she passed away." She responded than turned to the elf. "How come nobody told me you were working here?"

"I do not know Miss Juliet. Please sit down." she ushered Juliet and Sirius to a small table in the corner. "Can I get you something to eat?"

"Oh, yes please."

"What would you like"

"What ever you have is fine."

"I can make anything you want Miss Juliet."

"Spaghetti, for both of us" said Sirius, and Tawny rushed away.

"I didn't want her to make us anything special." Said Juliet glancing at the elf who was rushing around the kitchen, cooking their meal."

"She wouldn't have stopped until you told her exactly what you wanted. House elves are annoying like that."

"Annoying?"

"Yeah, all they do is wait around to cook and clean. They don't even have enough guts to ask to be paid. They're spineless, ugly creatures."

"You shouldn't say that. Who cleans your room, cooks your dinner and does your laundry?"

"I do." replied Sirius receiving a unconvinced look from Juliet. "Seriously, my house elf Kreatcher hates me."

"I don't believe you, house elves love everyone." She said laughing as Sirius nodded. "Why?"

"He takes after my mother."

"Okay now I know that your mother doesn't hate you."

"I think hate is the wrong word" sighed Sirius, "It's more like disapproves of and strongly dislikes."

"Really?" Sirius nodded again. "But why?"

"Because I remind her of my father." He shrugged

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Yes. My father was an asshole."

"Oh. Where is he now?"

"Dead"

"I'm so sorry." said Juliet, feeling bad for questioning him.

"It's fine. I hated him."

"Oh, well I'm still sorry"

"You shouldn't be. I'm not. Oh look the food's here. About time." Juliet took the hint and changed the subject.

"So why don't you play Quittich like James? I'm sure you'd be good at it." Juliet laughed poking him in his not so defined abs.

"I'm okay. How about you?"

"Lets just say I'm not the best flyer."

"Really? Didn't they teach you?"

"They tried." the way she said it gave Sirius the impression that she was an even worse flyer than she was letting on.

"You seriously can't fly?"

"Nope." Sirius finished his plate of Spaghetti and looked at Juliet

"Come on" he said rising."

"Where are we going?" she questioned as she was dragged out of the kitchen.

"To the Quittich pitch."

"Why?"

"I'm going to teach you how to fly"

"No you aren't." she said stopping

"Why not? You can't live your whole life not knowing how to fly."

"I thing I've done pretty well so far." Juliet attempted than sighed knowing there was no way of getting out of it. "Fine. Do you even have a broom"

"The school has brooms?"

"Sneaking around after curfew, stealing brooms." she sighed

"Yep. You're a bad influence on me."

"Because before I showed up you never got in any trouble" Laughed Juliet.

"Nope never." Said Sirius in a mockingly innocent tone. "The broom shed is over there" he pointed to an old shed beside the pitch as they stepped outside. He walked over and pulled it open. Sirius grabbed the two least beat up broomsticks that he could find. Than turned toward the pitch.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Juliet asked

"Yes." He responded handing Juliet the better of the two brooms. "Ok now mount the broom. Good. Now just think about flying." Sirius slowly started to rise off the ground but Juliet didn't move. "Your trying to hard" Juliet's hands were tightly clutching the broom and her eyes were squeezed shut.

"How is it supposed to work if I don't try?" she questioned opening one eye.

" You're thinking too much."

"Is that a bad thing?" Sirius laughed as he landed and walked over to her broom. "What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you fly." He climbed on in front of her. "Hold on to me." He said as the broom started to rise. She wrapped her arms around his waist. They slowly flew over the black lake, Juliet remembered the how she had been swimming in it with Sirius the night before. At least she thought it had been the night before. She had kind of lost track of time. He landed the broom and told Juliet to switch placed with him. "Now remember the feeling of flying." he whispered wrapping his arms around her. They slowly started to drift into the air.

"I'm doing it." Sirius laughed at her excited tone. "Now what?"

"Pick a star, and chase it."

"What?"

"Like we did last night."

"I was drunk last night."

"Does it matter?"

"But why would you chase a star, you're never going to be able to catch it?"

"You're not supposed to catch it. That's the point." Juliet looked at the boy sitting behind her, confusion apparent in her eyes. The second his lips met her's the world collapsed from beneath them as they as they feel towards the ground. Juliet felt Sirius's arms still around her but she couldn't see him or anything else. She heard his voice as she plunged into darkness.


	16. Chapter 15

_I'm going to die_ was the only thought going through Juliet's head. And it was repeating itself over and over. Sirius was gone, he had been torn away from her as they hit the ice cold water. Juliet could not move, from the shock of the water and she was slowly sinking to the bottom of the black lake. She could feel the pressure from thousands of tons of water pressing on her small body and she knew if that didn't kill her, the lack of oxygen surly would. It was silent, almost peaceful, as Juliet stopped fighting for her life.

"Juliet" Sirius Screamed into the darkness. He looked at the almost still water surrounding him. He had lost his hold on her in the confusion of falling from the sky. Something grazed his hand and he spun around hoping to see Juliet but realizing that it was only the handle of the broom that had collapsed from beneath them. "Juliet!" He repeated, to once again receive no answer. Sirius dove under the water, frantically searching for Juliet. The water was almost black, and it was hard to see anything clearly. He suddenly noticed the vague outline of a motionless body in the water. Sirius grabbed Juliet's cold body and pulled her to the surface of the water. He pushed her wet hair out of her face and noticed that her skin was slightly blue and that she was not breathing. "Juliet, don't do this." He said as he swam her to the edge of the lake. Sirius emerged from the Black Lake carrying Juliet in his arms and instantly started running toward the castle. Seconds later he burst into the hospital wing and started yelling for Madam Pomphrey, the young nurse. Her face paled as she saw the two dripping students. "Well do something" ordered Sirius glancing from the still motionless Juliet to the Nurse who looked like she could faint at any given second.

"Right" said Madam Pomphrey snapping back to herself. "Put her on that bed." The nurse's fingers went to Juliet's wrist and a terrified look crossed her face.

"She's going to be okay, right?" the nurse started to give Juliet CPR. "Isn't their something better you could do. You are a witch you know." Madam Pomphrey glanced at Sirius but did not stop. The door behind them opened and Albus Dumbledore marched into the hospital wing.

"What's going on?" he questioned Sirius who was shaking from both coldness and fear.

"We fell in the lake." Sirius replied. Dumbledore glanced at him with angry curiosity in his eyes but did not question him further. After a moment of silence Sirius noticed that the nurse had stopped the CPR on Juliet. He glanced at the girl laying on the hospital bed, soaking wet, and his heart fell. She looked, if anything, worse than she had when he pulled her out of the lake. Her face had lost all color and her ocean blue eyes were shut. Sirius' hands started trembling even harder as he looked from the Headmaster,s sad eyes to the nurses tearful ones. "Why did you stop." he said in a small voice, not wanting to hear the answer.

"She's gone"


	17. Chapter 16

"Cameron" She opened her eyes at the sound of her name. Juliet was standing next to her bed dripping with water. All color was absent from her skin and the brightness was missing from her dark blue eyes.

"Julie?" Juliet placed her cold fingers on Cameron's lips, signaling for her to be silent.

" It's not too late." She continued in a quiet voice that only vaguely resembled Juliet's. "Go to our father. He will know what to do."

"What do I need to do?"

"Save me." And then she was gone.

Cameron woke up suddenly and felt as though all of the air had just rushed from her lungs. Her thoughts flew to her twin sister. Something was wrong with Juliet. Without thinking Cameron climbed out of her bed and ran through the common room, out into the dark school hallway. She darted through the school until she came to the hospital wing where she could hear quiet voices. When she opened the door, the sight that met her made her head spin.

Juliet was laying motionless on one of the hospital beds. Her skin was dry and white and her hair and clothes were dripping with water, like in her dream. The heads of the school nurse, the Headmaster and Sirius Black all turned toward her in surprise. Sirius was also soaking wet and his usually deep brown eyes were dark and rimmed with tears. A mix of emotions crossed his face as he saw Cameron standing in the doorway, glancing back and forth from her sister, to him.

"What happened?" she asked softly. Approaching the bed, her sister was laying in.

"She fell in the lake." Dumbledore answered her question, even though she was looking at Sirius. "I'm sorry, but we couldn't save her." Cameron just stared in disbelief.

"She fell in the lake." She repeated and Sirius nodded. "How?"

"I was teaching her how to fly and. . ." Sirius stopped, unable to finish his statement. It was his fault. Juliet was dead because of him.

Cameron was no longer listening. She was looking down at the lifeless face of her twin sister. She stroked Juliet's wet blond hair. Cameron gasped and pulled her hand away from Juliet's face as her fingers brushed her skin and a shock ran through her body.

"I know dear. I am so sorry." Said Madam Pomphrey placing her hand on Cameron's shoulder.

"She's not dead."

"I know it's hard to accept dear, it was so sudden."

"No, she's still alive."

"Now Miss Thomson, I know you and your sister were close and I am very sorry for your loss. But I assure you, she is dead." Said the headmaster pulling a sheet over Juliet's head.

"Stop it!" cried Cameron, tearing the sheet out of the old man's hands and neatly folding it around Juliet as though she was asleep. "She is not dead. We can still save her."

"Maybe she should lie down." The Nurse glanced at Professor Dumbledore who nodded. Madam Pomphrey started to lead the hysterical teenage girl toward a bed but Cameron pulled away.

"I don't need to lie down." Cameron was yelling now. " I know Juliet, and she's not dead."

"Maybe she's right."

"Mr. Black, don't you start with this too."

"But if there is any chance at all of saving her, we have to try." Sirius was just as angry as Cameron. Professor Dumbledore looked over the two students for a moment.

"Do what you must. But I warn you Miss Thomson, do not get your hopes up. You know that it is not possible to raise anyone from the dead."

"I know that sir, but she is not dead." Dumbledore nodded. "I am leaving the school, I need to find my father." A concerned look crossed the Headmaster's eyes but he once again nodded. Cameron turned to Sirius. "Don't tell anyone what happened. Say there was a family emergency, and Juliet and I had to leave."

"Wait, slow down. I'm coming with you."

"What?" She replied in shock. The last thing she wanted was for him to come with her. This was, after all, his fault. "No you're not. You've already done enough." Sirius actually looked hurt by this accusation.

"You have to let me come. Do you really think I wanted this to happen."

"I think, that Mr Black going with you is a good idea." Said the Headmaster.

"What?" Replied Cameron, "I don't"

"If you are going, Miss Thomas, than so is Mr. Black."

"But-" Dumbledore held up his hand signaling that the discussion was over.

"I recommend that you leave now, before the rest of the school is awake." Cameron nodded and she and Sirius turned to leave.

"I'll meet you back here in ten minutes okay." he said.

"What could you possibly need to do?" Questioned Cameron.

"I have some things we might need." When she looked at him with confusion he added, "Just in case we run into some trouble. You never know." Cameron finally agreed and decided to go change out of her pajamas before she left. Ten minutes later they meet by the Great hall, ready to leave. Neither of them were quite sure what they were getting themselves into, or if saving Juliet was even possible. But they both knew, that if they didn't try, they would both regret it for the rest of their lives. So the two of them marched out of the castle, onto the grounds which were lit by the sun rising over the forest, and to find Cameron and Juliet's father, the one person who could save Juliet, and change everything.


	18. Chapter 17

"Where are we?" Sirius questioned Cameron. She had just apparated them into what looked like a hallway of a dark house.

"I don't know" she responded, looking around herself. She gasped as she felt something pressing on the middle of her back.

"Why are you here little girl?" Said a cold voice into her ear. Pressing his wand even harder into her spine.

"I- I came to see my father." she said.

"Let he go"A second a voice from a doorway ordered her release. "Cam, what are you doing here. I told Juliet-"

"Juliet's dying. Or she might already be dead, I don't know, but we need your help to save her."

"Dying?"

"She fell into the lake." explained Sirius, his voice dripping with guilt.

"Dumbledore said she drowned, but she's not dead, not yet." Finished Cameron, looking up at her father. The man who had, had his wand stuck in Cameron's back cleared his throat.

"I must talk to my assistant for a moment." Cameron's father told her, "Wait here, it will only be a moment." He walked over to the short, balding man and they started whispering.

"But she's my daughter." Cameron heard her father say. "No I haven't told them" And then "I am sure that it isn't necessary. Why would they not. . ." Cameron could not understand the rest of what he was saying, or piece together what she had heard. When her father came back he ushered the two teenager's into a large room. He walked over to a cabinet that was full of dusty bottles and pulled one out. It was small and contained a liquid that was clear, yet seemed to be glowing. "One drop of this will save Juliet"

"What is it?" questioned Sirius

"It is water from the shores of Avalon, gathered by the Lady of the Lake herself." he replied "But before we can use it you must swear that you, and any children that you may have, will always remain loyal to me."

"What?"

"Cameron, I need you to make the unbreakable vow."

"Of course"

"Cameron," Said Sirius, pulling her out of her father's earshot. "This doesn't feel right. He's your father, you shouldn't have to vow to remain loyal to him."

"I don't have a choice." She replied, walking back to her father and holding out her hand. He took it and gestured that he wanted Sirius to be the one who locked the vow.

Sirius placed his wand on top of there interlocked hands and started. "Cameron Thomson, do you swear that you and any children that you may have, will be forever loyal to your father," Cameron opened her mouth to reply but Sirius continued, "as long as he will always protect you and your sister."

"That is not the vow I told you to lock."

"It is this or nothing. She is your daughter. You should protect her anyway." Cameron looked at her father who nodded.

"I do." she said. A black chain shot from Sirius' wand and wrapped itself around the two hands.

Juliet was frantically wandering through the woods. She had no idea where she was yet

everything looked familiar. She could see a black dog in the distance. Suddenly she wasn't lost anymore, she was standing in the entrance hall of the Hogwarts castle, looking at a girl about her own age. She had dark red hair and brown eyes that Juliet would have sworn that she'd seen before. And the thing that shocked Juliet more than anything was that the girl was wearing the same white dress and mask that Juliet had worn to the Halloween Masquerade. The one her father had given her. The girl turned to head back to the dance and somebody walked up beside her and grabbed her wrist.

"I'm sorry I'm late. You must be Catherine," she nodded, looking up at the man in front of her.

"My uncle wrote to me telling me that I should meet a friend of his and my

mother's. I'm assuming that's you. I'm sorry; he didn't forewarn me about your name, what is it?"

"Catherine, I'm more than a friend to your mother. She and I dated when we were in

Hogwarts," the mysterious man said as he led the girl to a table in the corner of the Great Hall.

Juliet followed. She didn't recognize anyone else at the dance. "I don't want to overwhelm you,

but," he said, starting to remove his mask. The girl's eyes widened but Juliet still couldn't tell

who the man was.

"I thought you were dead." He laughed and shook his head "No offence, but what are you doing here? I'm sure you didn't travel to Hogwarts just to meet me, the daughter of an old girlfriend. If I might add this must be terribly awkward for you," she said standing up.

"I'm your father," he said shortly, causing her to stop moving all together. "Your mother

was pregnant with you shortly after we got out of school. After that I didn't see much of her, she

didn't tell me. After the thing with James and Lily." he said stopping and making sure she knew

who he was talking about. She nodded and he continued. "I was sent to Azkaban, your mother

doesn't know I'm alive."

"That might explain why she doesn't like me so much," The girl added, "My mother

always said I looked like my father and she told me that she wasn't on good terms with him. You

should come back in with me. You can meet my friends," he nodded and stood up, putting his

mask back on his face. Juliet stood and watched as the young girl, and the man, both of whom

she felt that she had met walked on to the dance floor and started to dance.

The room started to spin and the world collapsed from beneath her. She landed in the

Black Lake, it was full of people who she recognized from school. They were laughing and

splashing each other. Nobody seemed to notice Juliet among the crowd. Suddenly she realized

that she wasn't actually part of the crowd, she was floating above watching the scene below her.

She noticed a couple, they were standing on the shore of the lake, close together, both shivering

in the cold. He pushed the hair out of her face and lifted the mask away from her blue eyes

before leaning down to kiss her.

Juliet started to fall, and then she was in the dark water fighting for her life. The world

was closing in around her. Juliet could not move, from the shock of the water and she was

slowly sinking to the bottom of the black lake. She could feel the pressure from thousands of

tons of water pressing on her small body and she knew if that didn't kill her, the lack of oxygen

surly would. It was silent, almost peaceful, and Juliet knew that giving up would be so easy. All she had to do was stop fighting.

Then she was standing in Cameron's bedroom, dripping with water, watching her twin

sister sleep.

"Cameron" She opened her eyes at the sound of her name.

"Julie?" Juliet placed her cold fingers on Cameron's lips, signaling for her to be silent.

There was no time for questions, this was important.

" It's not too late." She said in a quiet voice that only vaguely resembled her own. "Go to

our father. He will know what to do."

"What do I need to do?" Cameron asked with fear and confusion in her eyes.

"Save me."

Juliet was in the lake again, she was no longer fighting. She was still, waiting for death to

take her. Then Juliet suddenly decide that she couldn't die, not here, not like this. She opened her eyes lying in a school hospital bed, Cameron, Sirius and her father looking down at her.


	19. Chapter 18

"Juliet"

"Thank Merlin you're alright"

"We thought we'd lost you" sang a chorus of voices as Juliet struggled to sit up in bed only to be pushed back down by Madam Pomphrey.

"I heard she was attacked by another werewolf"

"I heard she got attacked by the Whopping Willow"

"Well I heard it was a Centaur"

"It's probably just the flu and she's trying to make it some big deal just for attention"

"No, I heard Sirius Black gave her some exotic STD"

A week later when Juliet was released from the Hospital wing and started classes again, she tried to ignore the whispers and curious glances from her classmates. Everyone seemed to think that something different had happened to her, but somehow nobody was anywhere near the truth.

"Do you want to copy my Transfiguration homework?" asked Lily one Saturday when the group was sitting in the common room doing more talking than schoolwork.

"I do" said Remus, James and Sirius at once, only to receive a glare from Lily.

"No thank you." Said Juliet impatiently.

"What? Are you crazy, just take it and give it to me." begged James

"You never let anyone copy your homework."

"Exactly" said Sirius, Juliet ignored him and continued,

"I'm fine. I can do it myself."

"I was just trying to. . ."

"Help? I know. But I don't need it. You guys have been waiting on me hand and foot for the last week and a half and it's driving me crazy. I can take care of myself."

"I'm sorry" said Lily. Sirius, Remus and James all apologized as well.

"I know you guys were worried about me, but-" before she could finish she heard a high pitched voice behind her.

"Juliet," Said Dolores, Placing her hand on Juliet's shoulder. "Can I get you anything?" This caused a laugh from the group as Juliet shook her head. Dolores shrugged and perched herself on Sirius' lap. He gave Juliet a guilty glance and a half smile as he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend. After a moment of silence Juliet sighed and stood up. "I need to go to the Library, does anyone else want to come?"

"I'll go." Said James, "I need to start my History of Magic paper."

"Start?" exclaimed Lily "It's due on Tuesday, mine's been done for a week." James just shrugged and kissed her on the forehead as he picked up his books to follow Juliet.

"Is Remus with you?" asked Jackson passing Juliet and James in the Library.

"No he's in the common room. Is everything okay?" Jackson looked like he was about to cry but he nodded his head slightly and rushed out the door. James and Juliet found a table and worked in silence for a few moments.

"I'm bored" whispered James

"We've only been here for ten minutes" Juliet looked at his parchment and noticed that his essay was barely started.

"Do you know anything about the Giant revolt of 1879"

"No"

"Either do I"

"Than why did you pick it as a topic. You could have done it on the Troll revolution of 1862 or the Irish Goblin wars." James Shrugged. And Juliet went back to work. A few minutes later she glanced up to find James staring at her.

"What?"

"Nothing." he said looking away quickly. Juliet chose to ignore the fact that her heart skipped a beat when his pale blue eyes met her dark ones. A few seconds later when his foot grazed hers and he didn't pull it away, Juliet ignored the chill that ran up her spine and almost smiled vaugly before catching herself. She didn't, however, move her foot. After more silence, not awkward, just silent, Juliet stood up and said she needed to find a book.

_He is Lily's boyfriend_ she told herself, leaning against a book case. _He's my best friend's boyfriend._

"You ok?" asked James walking down the isle of books.

"What, oh yeah I'm fine."

"You sure. Cause you don't look fine."

"Oh, thanks" she said sarcastically, but smiling up at him.

"No I mean you always look amazing but. . ." There eyes met, then a second later their lips. A hundred thousand thoughts were running through Juliet's head. But the one that was the most powerful, the one that she listened to, was _Don't Stop_

"Stop it." shrieked Cameron, "Stop!" Cameron and Jonathan were rolling on the floor together tickling each other and laughing so hard that they both had tears in their eyes. Jonathan pinned her onto the ground and kissed her. Cameron giggled.

"I love you" She froze at his words. The room was silent. "Cameron?"

"Yes"

"I just said I love you"

"I know"

"Well do you want to say something"

"Not really" Jonathan, who was still pinning Cameron to the floor, looked down at her in confusion.

"Nothing?" Cameron shook her head. Jonathan finally stood up and extended his hand to Cameron.

"I'm sorry John, but-"

"It's fine." he said turning his back to her.

"It's not like I won't love you one day. But I'm not going to say it now if I can't mean it."

"I said it's fine." He turned back to face her. The embarrassment that Cameron had expected to see in his eyes was replaced with anger.

"I should go." Jonathan nodded.

"We can't do this." Juliet said finally. Somehow her and James had found there way into a storage room where they had been for the last half hour, and Juliet had just found her voice.

"I know" he replied kissing her on the neck.

"You're with Lily. She's my best friend."

"I know"

"James, Stop." she said pulling away. "We can't do this to Lily." James looked into her eyes for a moment.

"I'll break up with Lily."

"What?"

"If you want me to end it with Lily I will."

"But you love Lily."

"No I don't." He replied "Lily is smart and pretty and even fun when she lets loose, but I'm not in love with her." Juliet searched his eyes wondering if he was lying. "She's nothing compared to you." Juliet smiled and kissed him softly. She felt bad, she knew how much Lily loved James, but for some reason she couldn't say 'no' to him.


	20. Chapter 19

Cameron sat on her bed twirling her ruby ring around her finger. She was looking own at two pictures. One was taken After the Halloween masquerade. Her and Jonathan were walking back to the castle, both drunk, wet, shivering and extremely happy looking. The couple in the picture were smiling up at her, waving and every once in a while sneaking a kiss. The other picture was of her and Lucius, they were at Slughorn's welcome back party, Cameron was smiling at the camera but Lucius' eyes were focused on her face. She couldn't have as much fun with anyone as she could with Jonathan, but Lucius was just so. . . intense. With one more glance at the pictures, Cameron realized two things. First that she was madly in love with two guys, second, that there was no way in hell that she could ever choose between them.

"Asshole" muttered Remus taking the letter out of Jackson's hand and replacing it with his own hand. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know but I can't go home."

"You can't be serious. Christmas vacation starts in a week."

"If I go home my father is going to kill me. That's all there is to it." Sighed Jackson, tears filling his eyes.

"Don't worry you can come home with me." Said Remus wrapping his arms around Jackson and kissing his forehead.

"Are you sure?" Jackson looked surprised and almost nervous. "Your parents won't mind if you bring your boyfriend home with you?"

"Are you kidding?" He laughed. "They probably won't even notice. My mom's in Cancun or something with her newest boy toy and my dad's drinking more that usual. I'll be lucky if they even notice me."

"Why don't you stay here then? The school will be practically empty. We can cuddle up by the warm fire together on Christmas morning." Jackson's eyed light up as he talked. He had not looked this happy since he had receive the letter from his father saying that he refused to have a gay son, and until he changed his 'unmoral lifestyle' he was no longer part of the family. "So what do you say?" Remus looked into the hazel eyed of the boy in front of him, realizing how much he had missed him and that he actually might be in love.

"Of course I'll stay."

"What are you doing for Christmas Vacation?" Asked Juliet, not moving her head from James' shoulder. They were sitting on the floor in the back of the library, between two bookshelves.

"I was supposed to go home, but my father is traveling to Germany for work, so it's either go to my crazy aunt Lucy's house or stay here. I opted to stay." He laughed. "What are you doing?"

"Going home, if that's what you want to call it. I only lived there for a week before leaving for school." She sighed.

"Well stay here with me then. We'll be all alone. Together."

"I wish I could but since my father died. . .or left, she's been really weird around holidays. She might totally lose it if I don't go home." She frowned for a second before looking up at him, a smile crossing her face. " But, you could come with me."

"Do you think that's a good idea? What if someone sees us leaving together?"

"Well, we'll stay here together for a few days, then we can leave together and nobody will notice. If anyone does than you can tell them that your father came home early."

"Are you sure? You'll have to explain to your mother and sister who I am."

"I'll tell them you're just a friend who didn't have anywhere else to go for Christmas." She smiled up at him, silting her head so that he would kiss her. Of course he took the bait.

"I can't wait to get out of here" Said Cameron the second Bellatrix walked into their dorm.

"Lucky you." She replied falling onto the bed next to Cameron "You actually get to go home, while the unfortunate few of us get to stay here for the whole vacation."

"Why don't you come home with me?" Cam offered. "My mom won't care."

"I don't know, maybe." Bella thought for a second than suddenly said "What's with the trip down memory lane?"

"Huh?"

"The pictures." She said waving the two pictures that had still been sitting on the bed in her face.

"Oh, nothing." Cameron shrugged, "I was just thinking."

"Do you know what?" Said Bella jumping off the bed.

"What" sighed Cameron almost afraid of what Bella was doing as she started to dig threw her trunk.

"You need to stop thinking and start relaxing." She picked up a large bottle of Fire whiskey and threw it to Cameron.

An hour and almost a full bottle of fire whiskey later the girls were laying on Cameron's bed in hysterics.

"John was good, don't get me wrong," Cameron was saying "but Lucius was like. . . ." she stopped and pondered to herself, remembering what it was like to be with Lucius. It was defiantly hard to forget.

"Do you know who is really great." Bella said with a sly smile across her face. "The best I ever had. . . or did," She corrected with a giggle, "Sirius Black"

"Merlin! Did you seriously screw Sirius Black. He's like really hot." slurred Cameron, wondering how he would compare with Lucius. Then realizing something. "Wait isn't he like your cousin?"

"My mom's step sister married his dad's brother or something like that. It was only like a year ago." She giggled wickedly. "We did it at the wedding"

"You did not!" Bella nodded "I think my sister's dating him." Cameron suddenly remembered.

"Well lucky her."

"Where have you two been?" questioned Sirius as Juliet and James walked into the common room through the portrait hole.

"The library" Juliet answered quickly "Working on the project for Divination"

"I thought that wasn't due until after Christmas vacation?"

"Just getting a head start." shrugged Juliet.

"Juliet I can understand, but James, you never get a head start on anything." Said Lily looking up from her book.

"Well we have our N.E.W.T.S. coming up, and if I want a job at the Ministry I have to do good."

"Oh, the N.E.W.T.S. are coming up."Said Peter nervously, "Maybe I should start studying too. Can I come with you next time you go to the library?"

"Uh. . . sure" replied Juliet with a smile, knowing that next time they went to the library they would conveniently forget that he wanted to come along.

Suddenly Sirius grabbed one of Lily's books and ducked behind it. Juliet looked around the room and the only person that she could assume Sirius was reacting to was Dolores who was walking out of sight and looking really pissed.

"What did you do to her?" questioned Lily without a hint of interest in her voice, only slight annoyance that she would have to share a room with one of her best friend's ex's.

"Why do you always assume it was something I did?"

"Because it usually is." Laughed Remus. Then added, "He dumped her."

"About time." said Peter with a laugh "I was getting sick of her hanging around all the time."

"Yeah," agreed James, glad for the change in subject. "Lets all drink to Sirius' newly found freedom!" with a wave of his wand a bottle and six glasses appeared in front of the group.

"I thought you were taking school more seriously?" Laughed Remus.

"Having a drink tonight won't effect my school work"

"No" he agreed, "but a hangover tomorrow will."

James just glared at him as he poured the amber liquid into each glass.

"To life." Said Remus, holding up his glass, which was filled with pumpkin juice instead of firewhiskey, "Enjoy it while you can."

"To love." Said James, glancing at Lily but taking Juliet's hand into his own, under the table. "Unpredictable and uncontrollable"

"To friends." Said Peter, "Unconditional loyalty."

"To us." Said Sirius, "To the Marauders"

After a few drinks Lily stood up and announced that she was going to bed. As she kissed James, his hand squeezed Juliet's leg under the table, who had turned away pretending to be interested in what Remus was saying. Slowly everyone else went to bed, until James Juliet and Sirius were left alone at the table. Both guys waiting for the other to go to bed.

Finally, sick of the tension Juliet stood and said that she was going to sleep. She looked back and forth between the boys. Sirius was the first to speak up.

"Um . . . Juliet, can I talk to you for a second?" She nodded and he led her out of James' earshot. "You know about the New Years dance, right?" Juliet nodded again. "Well, I was wondering if you would go with me. . . if you wanted to, I mean."

"Yes, of course I'll go with you." she said without thinking.

"Really?" Sirius' eyes lit up and for the first time since Juliet had met him, he looked truly happy. "Great" he kissed her on the cheek before turning and walking up the boys' stair case.

"What was that?" questioned James who was suddenly in front of her.

"What?" she replied, a smile still across her face.

"Did he just ask you out?"

"Yeah." She said, suddenly realizing why he was upset. "He asked me to the New Years dance. But as a friend, that's it." They both knew that this wasn't true.

"Sirius doesn't bring friends as dates to anything. Not even stupid family dances."

"Well then I guess I have a date to the dance. What do you care, you'll be will Lily all night anyway." She retorted somewhat bitterly. Then picked up on something else he had said. "What do you mean by 'Family Dance'?"

"The school sends out invitations to every student's family to come to the dance. It's two days before we have to be back at school so not everyone goes."

"Oh. So my mother is coming to the school? That should be interesting."

"Why?" James laughed at the expression on her face.

"You'll meet her soon enough." Said Juliet, kissing James before turning to go to bed.


	21. Chapter 20

"Where are we going?" Whispered Juliet.

"Do you really want me to tell you?"

"Yes"

"But that will ruin the surprise" Laughed James, without moving his hand, which was covering her eyes.

"I hate surprises" Juliet mumbled, only to receive a kiss on the cheek in response. "Are we almost there?"

"Are you _trying_ to ruin the moment?"

"The moment wouldn't be ruined if you would just let me see where I was going." she pouted, James only laughed.

"We've been over this already." Juliet heard what she thought was a door opening. "If you knew where we were going-"

"-It would ruin the surprise. I know." She heard the door close.

"You'll just have to trust me."

"I trust you, but can I please just open my eyes."

"Fine" James sighed "But you have to kiss me first." He moved in front of her, without removing his hand and kissed her slowly on the lips. As he kissed her his hand slid from her eyes to her cheek. Juliet moved away after a long moment, a victorious smile across her face and gasped realizing where she was.

She had been here many times. The busy streets and the smell of fresh bread and paint were familiar and welcoming. She was standing in the center of Paris, France. The city she had grown up in, and missed terribly.

"James" she gasped "How did you. . ."

"Magic" he whispered into her ear with a chuckle. "Where to Madam?" He asked in a bad French accent and offering his arm.

"I don't know where to start." She took in the scene around her. "You are amazing, do you know that?"

"Yes, I do" he laughed at her expression.

"Madeline's." She said suddenly.

"What?"

"Madeline's Café" She replied like it was obvious. "They have the best coffee you will ever taste." She started pulling him down the street and into an ally.

"I thought we were getting coffee." stated James looking at the solid brick walls around them. Juliet giggled but didn't respond. She took out her wand and pointed it at an almost black brick on the wall at the back of the ally. She said something under her breath and the wall in front of them turned into the front of a cozy looking coffee shop.

James glanced over his shoulder wondering if any of the muggles on the street had noticed a coffee shop appearing out of nowhere. Unsurprisingly they hadn't. Inside the coffee shop was bright and cheerful, and Juliet had been right, the coffee was amazing.

Although James wanted to see the wizarding town, Juliet insisted that it was nothing compared to Paris. They ran around the city acting like tourists, even though Juliet had lived there her whole life.

"So now what?" asked Juliet. They were walking down the street hand in hand admiring the beauty of Paris at night. She knew that it was probably already past curfew at the school but she wasn't ready to leave.

"Well, we could go back to school. . ." Juliet pouted as he said this " . . . or we could stay in Paris until we leave for your house."

"I like the second option" she said, although the smile on her face made that perfectly clear. "There's a hotel, above of the White Labyrinth. It's above this bar I used to hang out in, I haven't been there in ages. Can we stay there?"

"Whatever you want." He replied, laughing at her excitement.

"Ok, come on." she pulled him down the street and into an old building. They rushed up several flights of stairs and onto a roof that looked like it could collapse at any moment.

"What are we doing?"

"It's your turn to trust me." She said, kissing him. "Do you?"

"Trust you? Of course."

"Ok good." She kissed him again. "Do you see over there, where the railing's missing." James nodded. "We're going to walk off the building right there."

"What?"

"You said you trusted me didn't you?"

"Yeah but. . ."

"I'm not going to let anything happen to you." She giggled and took his hand, leading him to the ledge. "Close your eyes."

"Juliet. . ."

"Just do it." he did. "Don't be afraid."

"I'm not."

"Liar." He didn't respond. "Just take a step forward. He hesitated for a moment before doing it. He waited for the world to fall from beneath him, but it never happened. His foot hit solid ground and his eyes flew open. They were standing in the middle of a crowded street, Witches and Wizards rushed past them and the streets were lined with various stores.

"Welcome to Voie Lune. The largest wizarding town in the world"

"Merlin!" James gaped at the scene around him, taking in the beauty of the old buildings and the large river that bordered the town.

"Amazing isn't it?" James nodded "Come on, let's find the White Labyrinth." She led him down the street, laughing at his amazement. They turned onto a side road and stopped in front of a small building that looked as though it was even older than everything else in Voie Lune. There was a small sign in the window that read 'The White Labyrinth' but it was otherwise unmarked. The room they stepped into didn't seem to match the outside of the building. There was a large glass and steel bar that took up most of the small space. There were low tables scattered about the room surrounded by comfy looking chairs. Juliet walked up to the bar and smiled warmly at the bartender who was almost twice the size of James.

"Juliet" He said when he noticed her. "Where the hell have you been?"

"I moved to England." She shrugged, "I told you I was going to."

"Oh right, right. Well I'm glad to see you back. What can I get for you?"

"A room upstairs. Whatever you have open is fine."

"Ok then." He eyed James curiously. "One bed or two?"

"Two" said James The same time Juliet said "One."

"I see. Well then why don't you take room 108." He smiled knowingly as he handed Juliet a key. "And you," He pointed at James, " you better take care of her, or you'll have to deal with me." James glanced at Juliet unsure of how to react, but she was laughing.

"It was nice to see you Mike."

"You too. Make sure you say goodbye before you leave." They walked up a staircase in the back corner of the bar and into a hallway lined with doors. Room 108 was on the end. Juliet opened the door and froze in shock.

"I'm going to murder him." She said even though she was laughing. In the middle of the room was a large bed covered in a hot pink comforter with a headboard shaped like a giant heart. There were roses everywhere and on the small table was a bottle of Champagne, two glasses, and a note that read 'Welcome to the Honeymoon Suit'

At that moment an old lady walked out of the room across hall. She looked at James and Juliet and smiled warmly.

"Congratulations" She said. "It's so nice to see people finding love and committing so young." Before Juliet could correct her a man walked out of the room.

"What were you saying dear?" he asked his wife.

"Nothing. Just congratulating the newlyweds." She said as they walked down the hall. "Don't they remind you of us, when we first got married."

As soon as the couple was out of sight, Juliet and James burst out laughing.

"Well then" Said James, still laughing. "It is only proper to carry my wife over the threshold." He lifted Juliet in his arms, despite her protests, and carried her into the room, laying her on the bed. "So what now?"

"Well, we are on our honeymoon." She wrapped her arms around James and pulled him on to the bed next to her.


	22. Chapter 21

"Have you seen James?" Lily questioned as she sat down at the table for breakfast. "I wanted to say goodbye to him before I left, but I can't find him anywhere."

"I don't know, I can't find Juliet either." said Sirius

"Whats going on between you two?" Remus asked

"I have no idea. I haven't had a chance to talk to her since I asked her to the dance." Sirius shrugged. "That's why I wanted to find her"

"Well good luck with that" said Remus. "Wait where are you going, I thought James' parents were in Germany?"

"I'm going to my Uncle's house. He's been asking me to come and visit since I ran away last summer. I kinda thought you were all going home and I'd be left here alone so I said I'd go there for the brake."

"Your mother isn't going to be there is she?" gasped Lily.

"No, he was my dad's brother and hates my mother as much as I do." Sirius scanned the great hall again. "Isn't Juliet going home for the break?"

"Yes." Stated Lily, "But she's staying at school for a few extra days. She said she couldn't deal with her mother for a whole nine days."

"Oh." The disappointment was clear on his face.

"We better get going if you want to make the train." said Lily noticing the time.

"If I see James and Juliet I'll tell them you were looking for them." Remus watched his friends walk out of the great hall anxious to start his relaxing holiday with Jackson.

"I am so freaking bored." Whined Bellatrix. "Why aren't we leaving for your place until Christmas eve again?"

"Because Juliet said she needed to stay and help a friend or something." Said Cameron rolling her eyes.

"And that effects us how exactly?"

"Because if I come home without her, my mom will freak."

"Why do you always talk about your mom like that?" Asked Bella just to make conversation. "Like she's a child"

"Because she is."

"What do you mean?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Cameron didn't want to talk about her mother, and she definitely didn't want to see her in five days. "Come on, lets go down stairs and find something to do." Cameron started toward the common room and came to a dead stop half way down staircase, causing Bella to run into her, and sending them both toppling down the stairs and onto the stone floor.

"What the-"

"Shit. . . Ow"

"Are you alright?" Said both Jonathan and Lucius at the same time, rushing toward the two girls. Cameron looked up at the two guys, who, without knowing it, had caused the accident. When Cameron had seen them and realized that they were both still at school.

"Yeah I'm fine." said Cameron the same time Bella said "No. Dammit Cameron."

"Sorry. Shit your bleeding." Cameron looked down at Bella's hand which was cut and bleeding badly.

"Not as badly as you are." Said Jonathan picking up a towel and placing it on her forehead. "Come on, I'll take you down to the nurse."

"No, I'm fine, really."

"But it's really bleeding, you need to-"

"She said she didn't want to go." Lucius interrupted, glaring at Jonathan.

"But if she doesn't go it might get infected."

"I can fix it here with my wand. It's not even that bad. Does it hurt Cameron?" She shook her head not wanting to get involved. "See, she's fine."

"But she should at least get it checked out."

"Not if she doesn't want to."

"You know what, I think I will go to the nurse." Jonathan reached to take her arm. "Alone." she added before he touched her. She looked from Lucius who looked pissed, to John who looked hurt, to Bella who looked amused, before turning and walking out of the common room.

"Are you ok?" Cameron heard a voice behind her.

"I'm fine." She sighed before turning to see who she was talking to. He was tall and skinny, and his jet black hair clashed with his pale skin. Cameron recognized him. He was in Slythern but she had never talked to him.

"I hope your going to the hospital wing."

"Yeah" she sighed again.

"So how did you manage to do that?" He motioned to the bloody towel on her forehead.

"I fell down a flight of stairs." She laughed "Actually I was pushed. But it was still my fault."

"If you were pushed how was it your fault?"

"I made the fatal mistake of stopping on the staircase with someone behind me." She laughed again, realizing how stupid she sounded.

"Don't worry, you're not the first" he said it like he knew from experience. "So what are you still doing at school? A girl like you must have somewhere to go."

"What do you mean a girl like me?"

"Oh. . ." he flushed "I just mean . . . you know. . . popular . . . and perfect"

"Ha, I'm far from perfect."

"Well compared to me you are flawless."

"What's so bad about you?" She looked up at him and realized that he was actually pretty attractive. He shrugged but didn't answer. "So why did you stay?"

"Nowhere to go."

"There must be somewhere."

"Nope" he shook his head and seemed to be enjoying her reaction.

"That's horrible."

"It's not so bad" He shrugged again. "I don't have to deal with overprotective parents or annoying relatives."

"But you must have some family."

"Maybe some third cousin somewhere, but no one that I know."

"I'm sorry" said Cameron because she didn't know what else to say.

"Don't be. I told you it doesn't bother me." He smiled down at her. "So here we are?"

"What?" He laughed

"The hospital wing."

"Oh, right." She looked up realizing where they were.

"So I guess I'll see you later." he turned to leave.

"Yeah, see ya" she started into the hospital wing, then realized something and turned around. "What's your name?" she called after him but he was already gone.

As Cameron walked back into the common room, almost an hour later, she dreaded telling Jonathan that he had been right. The nurse had given her twelve instant healing stitches and a potion to relieve the pain, but had ignore Cameron's pleas to stay the night in the hospital wing.

"How do you feel?" Asked John, rushing over to her, the second he saw her. It was obvious that he had been impatiently waiting for her to come back, along with Lucius.

"I'm fine, Just a couple stitches, no big deal." She glanced apologetically at Lucius, knowing that he didn't like being wrong., and added "But I think the nurse overreacted."

"Come, sit down" he led her to the couch and sat down next to her. Bella sat on her other side and Lucius sat down on the coffee table in front of Cameron.

"I'm sorry Cam." He said glaring at Jonathan. "He was right. You needed to go to the Hospital."

"I was fine, I didn't want to go." She insisted.

"I have an idea" Announced Bella "Lets play spin the bottle."

"With four of us?"

"There are other people in the school you know." She rolled her eyes and pulled Cameron off the couch.

"So what are we going to do, hunt down every student in the school to play a stupid kissing game?"

"Yep. That's exactly what we're going to do. We'll make a game of it. Cameron, who do you want on your team?"

"You." she replied hopelessly

"But I'm the other team captain. I can't be on your team."

"Bella, I'm not in the mood."

"It will be fun." She sighed. "Fine, Lucius, you be on Cameron's team. John your stuck with me. Ok so here are the rules. We meet in the library in twenty minutes. Whoever has the most people with them wins."

"What do they win?"

"They get to pick the game we play."

"I thought we were playing spin the bottle."

"Well I changed my mind. Whoever wins gets to pick. Alright."

"Alright." The other three sighed.

"On your marks, get set. . ." She laughed " . . .GO!" before Bella could move Cameron grabbed her.

"You're a bitch you know that?"

"I know." Bella laughed, "It's why you love me."

"Cameron, come on." Said Lucius from the doorway, holing out his hand. Cameron sighed and took it. "We have to win this, I refuse to play any kissing games."

"Where do you want to start?" Cameron surprised herself by laughing.

"The great hall I guess." He shrugged and they took off running.

It didn't take very long for them to get into the game, and start enjoying themselves. "We're playing a game in the library in twenty minutes, wanna play?" They begged various people, usually laughing hysterically. Some people were excited and wanted to play, others followed along just because they were afraid of Lucius, but most just looked at them like they were insane before returning to whatever they had been doing.

They ran through the hallways, laughing and begging anyone they saw to play with them. Cameron stopped when she saw someone she recognized. It was the boy she had been talking to earlier.

"Come on, lets ask him." Said Cameron, pulling Lucius toward the boy.

"Don't bother, he won't play."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because, I just know him. Come on, we are almost out of time." He pulled her down the hallway.

"Hey you two." Called Lucius to two guys walking down the hall. When they turned around, Cameron recognized one of them as Juliet's friend.

"What?" said the one Cameron recognized. She was pretty sure his name was Remus Lupin.

"We are playing a game. Do you want to join."

"What kind of game?"

"We don't know yet?"

"You're joking right?" Said the other one that Cameron didn't recognize.

"No we're not." Said Cameron, annoyed. "Are you coming or not." They looked at each other, shrugged, then followed the group. They rushed to the library and when they got there Bella, Jonathan and about a dozen others were waiting.

"How many did you get?" Cameron turned to count her group.

"Thirteen." She replied

"Shit, we only got eleven."

"Yes we won!" Yelled Lucius, hugging Cameron.

"So what are we playing?"

"Quittich."

"But we have too many people and it's freezing outside."

"How about tag." said Cameron. "Throughout the entire school."

"On broom?"

"Of course."

"What if a teacher sees us?"

"Well don't let them see you." Replied Bella, rolling her eyes.

"We'll make it hide and seek." Said Jonathan.

"Does everyone have a broom." everyone nodded except a few first and second year students.

"Well then you don't play." Said Bellatrix.

"Bella, they can play if they want to." Said Cameron. She thought for a moment. "Does anyone played Quittich?"

"I do." Said the guy that had been with Juliet's friend.

"Go get them some school brooms."

He led a small group away and everyone else started to fight about the rules of the game.

"Ok so here's how it works" explained Bella, when the group had gotten back. "The game starts when I say 'Go' and doesn't end until New Years day. It is every man for himself. You are welcome to quit or take a break whenever you want. You can only tag someone if they are on a broom. You can go anywhere you want inside the school, but cannot hide in a room with a closed door. Nobody who is not here right now can know about the game. To tag someone, point your wand at them and say 'Puniceus'" She touched her wand to Jonathan's broom and it turned bright purple. "This is so everyone knows who's 'it'. Your wand must touch the broom for it to work. Any questions? Ok then John you're it. Ready . . . set . . . GO!"

About thirty students shot off in different directions, racing around the school.


	23. Chapter 22

"You need to fly faster than that." Jackson called, quickly gaining speed behind Remus

"This is isn't fair." He cried, "You play Quittich."

"Well maybe if you'd workout with me every once in a while, you would be better at this."

"It is not my fault that I'm bad at flying."

"Yes it is" Laughed Jackson, tagging Remus with his wand, who's broom instantly turned bright purple. Jackson blew him a kiss before flying away.

"Dammit, not again."

"So how are our newlyweds?" asked Mike, the bartender, with a mocking smile, as Juliet and James approached the bar to check out.

"Ha ha very funny" Juliet glared at him, although she had enjoyed playing newlyweds for the last few days.

"Can I get you some thing?" Mike offered, laughing.

"Just the bill."

"Leaving so soon. But I've hardly seen you." he pouted.

"Sorry Mike. Maybe I'll come back soon."

"Good." he leaned over the bar and kissed her on the cheek, smirking at James as he did.

"The bill?"

"It's on me." he laughed, extending his had toward James. "It was nice meeting you. Remember what I said, hurt her and I'll hunt you down." James smiled but Mike didn't smile back.

"It was . . . er. . . nice to meet you too." he coughed, then turned to Juliet "Ready to go?" she nodded. "Come on then." he took her hand and led her to where they had come from.

"You never did tell me ho we got here."

"We came through a door." he replied, enjoying taunting her.

"There's a door in the school that leads to France?"

"Something like that." He shrugged. He opened the door that they had come through and they were looking at the inside of an antique furniture shop, which was what the sign above the door advertised.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, that's not the school."

"Did you expect it to be?"

"Well, yeah, kind of."

"Are you sure it is the right door?" she asked, looking around the busy street full of shops.

"Yes, I am sure." he insisted. "Maybe. . . " he thought for a moment before shutting the door. He closed his eyes and paced back and forth three times before opening the door again. And there on the other side was the third floor hallway of Hogwarts.

"How . . ." James smiled and led the stunned Juliet into the school.

"Watch out!" James pushed Juliet out of the way only a second before someone flying a bright purple broomstick sped by.

"Where have you two been?" asked Remus, turning his broom around and flying back more slowly.

"Around" shrugged James, inching away from Juliet. Remus glanced back and forth between James and Juliet, neither meeting his eyes. He was about to question them further when he saw someone fly by the end of the hallway.

"I guess I'll see you guys later." he said before flying off.

"That was weird." said Juliet. "We must have missed a lot in five days." James nodded and reached to take her hand, out of habit, but stopped himself. Juliet smiled at him sadly, wondering how long they were going to have to keep this up.

"We'll tell them soon." He said as if reading her thoughts.

"Juliet." They both stopped and turned around to see Cameron flying toward them. "I've been looking for you everywhere, I haven't seen you the entire vacation.

"Sorry."

"Anyway," Cam continued without taking a breath, "are you ready to go. We are leaving in a half an hour. Meet me in the great hall in twenty minutes. Be ready." she flew off without giving Juliet a chance to speak.

"Shit" uttered Juliet watching the end of Cameron's broom turn the corner. "We better start packing."

Fifteen minutes later Juliet and James were standing in the great hall next to a small pile of luggage waiting for Cameron.

"You're early." Said Cameron walking into the Great Hall followed by Bellatrix Lestrange. "You are never early for anything. Is he coming with us?" She questioned, looking at James.

"Yeah, is she?" Juliet glanced at Bellatrix and Cameron nodded.

"Lets go." She placed a hovering charm on the bags and they headed out of the school toward Hogsmead. Once off school grounds Cameron turned to her sister and smiled. "See you at home." with a small pop her and Bellatrix were gone.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Asked James nervously.

"No." Juliet replied kissing him on the lips before taking his hand. After a moment of feeling as though they were being squeezed through a tube they stood in the foyer of a large house.

"You're hear!" Cried a tall, thin blonde woman wearing a low cut dress and a Santa Clause hat at she ran into the room and enveloped her two daughters in a hug.

"Mom, hi, how are you?" asked Juliet trying to release herself from her mother's grip.

"Mom, let go, we can't breathe." ordered Cameron and her mother obeyed.

"I'm just so glad to see you. I've missed you both so much."

"Well you could have written you know." Said Cameron under her breath, her mother ignored the comment.

"You didn't tell me you were bringing friends." She said glancing at James and Bellatrix, standing awkwardly by the door.

"We both wrote you." Sighed Juliet but her mother was not listening.

"Hello." She offered her hand to James then Bellatrix. "I am so glad that you could join us for the holidays.

"Thank you for having us Ms. Thomson."

"Please call me Mary. Ms. Thomson makes me feel so old"

"Mom this is James." Said Juliet hoping t o change the subject before her mother got started on how old she felt this week.

"And this is Bella." added Cameron.

"It is lovely to meet you both." She turned to her daughters. "Girls, there is someone I want you to meet." The excited look on her face worried her daughters. "Emma, could you come here for a moment." She called turning toward the large staircase. Walking down it was a middle aged woman and in her arms was a little girl. Once at the bottom of the staircase, Mary took the girl into her arms and turned back to her daughters. "Girls, this is Jordan." She was about three years old, had light red hair, that was presently in pigtails and her cheeks were spotted with freckles.

Juliet and Cameron looked at the girl, wondering why their mother was holding her.

"Meet your new sister."


	24. Chapter 23

"What!?" Gasped Juliet and Cameron at exactly the same time, and in exactly the same tone, one of confusion and mostly anger.

"Is she not just the most precious thing you have ever seen?" Said their mother, oblivious to the horror written on their faces. "I took a trip to Ireland. Sorry I didn't tell you but it was just a spur of the moment thing. Anyways, I don't know what happened I just. . . just fell in love."

"So you just adopted some random child?" blurted Cameron.

"What are you talking about? I got engaged."

"You what?"

"I know it was a bit irresponsible but-"

"A bit irresponsible? Mom, you have done some pretty screwed up things but this. . . this is just insane." She looked to Juliet for help but she was just staring at the little girl, speechless. "Who is this guy anyway? How long have you known him? All of what, a week."

"Don't talk to me like that. I am your mother."

"Ha, since when? You've never given a shit about us, or dad for that matter. All you care about is what's best for yourself. Ever since dad died you've been acting like a fucking teenager. You make one stupid decision after another and I am sick of it." There was a loud crack and Cameron was standing in an unfamiliar room looking up at Jonathan.

"Cameron?"

"Hi. I'm sorry. I got into this huge fight with my mom and. . . I don't know, I just had to get out of there. I didn't know where else to come." She angrily wiped the tears from her eyes. "Who's this?" she had just noticed the baby in his arms and realized that they were standing in a nursery.

"Cam. . . shit. I guess I needed to tell you eventually. But I was kinda waiting until . . . I don't know, I knew how you would react." he mumbled mostly to himself.

"React to what?" she sighed. "John?"

"This is Alex." He said nervously. "My son."

"Your what?"

"I was with this girl, Jessica, and she got pregnant." Cameron realized she wasn't breathing and inhaled sharply.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Jonathan put Alex in his crib and sighed deeply.

"It's not something I tell just anyone."

"But I'm not just anyone." She could feel tears burning behind her eyelids and fought to keep them back. "John, you said you loved me."

"But you said you didn't love me." there was a moment of silence then John whispered "Lets go down stairs, I don't want to wake him." Cameron nodded and allowed him to lead her to the kitchen. Cameron couldn't help but admire the beauty of his house. It was large, but unlike her's it had a feeling of warmth. As they entered the kitchen, he pulled out a chair for Cameron, and started making tea.

"How old is he?" She asked, just to break the silence.

"Eighteen months." Cameron sighed, wondering how long he was going to keep this a secret. As if reading her thoughts he said,

"I was going to tell you. I swear."

"When?" She asked quietly.

"When I knew you wouldn't hate me."

"John I could never hate you." She stood and walked over to him. "But I hate that you didn't trust me enough to tell me."

"Trust had nothing to do with it." heat was rising in his voice but Cameron didn't care, he had no reason to be angry.

"Trust has everything to do with it. If you truly trusted me, and loved me as much as you claimed to, you would have wanted to tell me."

"Of course I wanted to tell you." He was yelling now. "Do you know how hard it was not to."

"Oh yeah, it's real hard not to admit to your girlfriend that you got some whore pregnant."

"Shut up, you don't know what you're talking about. " She had never seen him this angry, and it scared her.

"You still love her."she said quietly, it wasn't a question.

"Cameron."

"Merlin, are you guys still together?"

"It is complicated."

"No it's not. Are you together of not?" He didn't answer. "This is why you didn't tell me. Because you were cheating on your girlfriend."

"Wife." he breathed sadly.

"What?" She shook her head slowly, not believing what she had heard. "You're married?"

" Well yeah but. . ."

"I . . . I need to leave."

"No Cameron wait." He grabbed her arm. "Let me explain."

"Explain what? That I'm nothing but your mistress. That everything between us has been a lie."

"You know that is not true."

"Yes it is. How can it not be."

"Because I love you. I have always loved you."

"John let me go. It's over." She pulled out of his grip but he grabbed her again, by both arms.

"You need to listen to me."

"Get your hand's off of me."

"Not until you tell me you love me." The tears finally started spilling from Cameron's eyes.

"John, you're scaring me. Let go."

"Say you love me."

"I can't, not after this."

"You're nothing but a filthy whore." He pushed her to the ground and was on to of her in a second, tearing at her clothes. He was stronger then her and she soon gave up on fighting him. She squeezed her eyes shut and let tears drip off her face. When he was done, he stood up and left the room, leaving her crying on the floor. He returned a moment later and threw ten galleons at her. "Now you've been paid for your services." He spat and left again. It took all of her strength but with a loud crack she was gone and a moment later she appeared on the floor of what looked like a boy's bedroom.

"Cameron? Merlin what happened to you." She instantly dissolved into tears again as Lucius sat next to her. When he tried to put his arm over her shoulder she jumped and slid away from him. "Cameron. You need to tell me what's wrong." It wasn't and order, it was a request. Cameron merely shook her head. He looked at her, taking in her ripped shirt and skirt which was still pulled up over her thighs. "Who did this to you?" She jumped again when he put his hand on her arm. Lucius noticed that bruises were starting to form on both of her wrists. "Cameron. Who did this." This _was_ an order.

She whispered a name, barley audible, but lucius instantly had fury written on his face.

"What did he do to you?" Cameron gasped and shook her head. "Dammit Cameron. Tell me what he did do to you." She jumped as he started to yell. "I'm sorry." he said softening his voice. "But you need to tell me."

"He raped me." She gasped.

"I'll be back." he said standing.

"No, don't"

"The bathroom is down the hall if you want to clean up. The kitchen is down stairs if you are hungry. Stay here, I won't be long. " There was a loud crack and he was gone.

The room was silent, with the excepting of silverware and dished scraping against each other. Juliet gave James an apologetic glance from across the table, then looked at Bellatrix who she actually felt sorry for. Cameron still hadn't returned and it wasn't Bella's fought, or anyone else's, that Mary Thomson had decided that Christmas Eve dinner was the best time for her daughter's, or daughter as it may be, to meet their soon to be step father.

Connor Badgley had light red hair and bright green eyes, like his daughter. Even Juliet had to admit that he was attractive. He was tall and well built, mainly because he played Quittich. He was also very kind, funny and entirely too young to be engaged to a woman who was pushing forty. When Juliet had first seen him, she assumed that he just looked young, but after further questioning he admitted that he was only twenty-nine.

"Mother you have got to be joking. You aren't seriously going to marry this guy?" Juliet said to her mother, later that night. They were sitting in the parlor, Mary was having her nightly drink.

"You don't like him?" She handed her daughter a glass full of amber liquid, which she gladly accepted.

"I like him, but don't you think he's a little young." She sipped the firewhiskey. "His daughter's three and your's are seventeen."

"Since when does age matter." She drowned her glass and filled it again. "Did I say anything to you when you were dating that nineteen year old when you were only fifteen?"

"That was different, it was only four years, this is eleven."

"It's only ten, I am still thirty-nine you know." Juliet rolled her eyes.

"Fine. But it is still a pretty big difference. And are you sure you want to take care of a kid that age again. I mean you haven't had a toddler around the house for thirteen years."

"After taking care of you and your sister, Jordan will be easy. She is such a well behaved child."

"Whatever." She sighed and finished her drink. "I'm going to bed, I'll talk to you in the morning."

"Goodnight." Said her mother as she kissed her on the cheek and walked up the large staircase. She looked over her shoulder to make sure her mother was watching as she walked into her bedroom. After a few moments she heard the sound of her mother's bedroom door close and she stepped into the hall and into the room next door, which James was staying in.

"You can't be serious." He laughed, when he saw her standing in his doorway wearing nothing but a short, silk robe. "We're in your mother's house. She's right down the hall." But the smirk on his face betrayed his words, and Juliet locked the door behind her.

"Then we'll have to be very quiet."


	25. Chapter 24

"How are you feeling?"Cameron smiled at the sound of Lucius' voice and glanced around the room to find the source. She found him sitting in a chair by the corner of the room, reading the Daily Profit, looking as though he had been waiting for her to wake up.

"Where did you sleep last night?" She asked avoiding his question. She didn't want to tell him how horrible she felt, but she also didn't want to lie.

"In one of the guest rooms."

"I didn't mean to fall asleep in your bed. You could have waken me." He just shrugged.

"Oh, I have something for you." He stood and left the room, returning a moment later holding a small box, which he handed her. "Happy Christmas."

"Christmas?"

"Yes, today would be the twenty-fifth of December. More commonly known as Christmas." He said slowly in a mocking tone.

"Merlin, I forgot."

"Well. . . " he glanced at the package.

"Oh, right." She tore off the shinny red paper to reveal a box witch she just stared at.

"I'm glad you like the box, but there is more inside." He said in the same playfully mocking voice. She obeyed, lifting the lid to reveal a star made out of hundreds of diamonds. It hung gracefully from a thin silver chain as Cameron picked it up to admire it.

"It's beautiful" She gasped. "You shouldn't have. . . I mean, I can't take this."

"But I bought it for you."

"I know but it looks so expensive and. . . I didn't get you anything."

"That's alright. I didn't expect anything. I saw this in the store a few days ago and it reminded me of you. I was going to send it to you anonymously, but you were here so . . . "

"I can't believe you." She said, placing her hand over his. "It's amazing. You're amazing." They looked at each other for a moment. Cameron's eyes wandered toward his lips and she leaned her head toward his.

"We should probably get you home." Lucius whispered, moving away. "Your mother is probably worried."

"Oh, right." Cameron could feel heat rising in her cheeks. "I . . . I guess I'll go."

"Let me go with you."

"No" She said, a little quicker than intended. She looked up at him and he looked hurt. "I mean I'll be fine. Thanks for everything."

"Are you sure? I don't mind coming."

"I'll see you at school." she kissed him on the cheek before disappearing with a small pop.

"Happy Christmas" Juliet yawned as she entered the living room. Her mother was sitting on the floor in front of the large tree with Jordan on her lap. They were surrounded by piles of colorful wrapping paper. Connor was sitting in an armchair reading the Daily Prophet, and Bella was sitting in the other armchair looking uncomfortable.

"Well look whose finally awake." Said Mary looking up at her daughter. "We opened presents without you, Jordan was just so excited. These are yours." She pushed a large pile toward Juliet. "Where is that handsome boy you brought home?" Juliet shrugged even though she knew he always slept late. There was a crack and Cameron was standing next to Juliet. "Where have you-" her mother instantly started but Juliet cut her off.

"What happened?" Cameron's hand flew to her eye which was circled with black, blue and purple.

"I. . . nothing."

"But-"

"I'm fine." Cameron gave her sister a glare that said 'drop it' and Juliet obeyed.

"Where is everyone?" a voice came from the hallway.

"We're in here" Juliet called and a moment later James appeared, yawning.

"Happy Christmas!" Chirped Mary, throwing her arm over his shoulders and handing him a large bag. " This was dropped off for you this morning."

"Thank You"

"Juliet you need to open your presents. Cameron, you too." Cameron didn't even look at her mother before turning and walking out of the room.

"Cam-" Juliet started after her but her mother grabbed her by the arm.

"If she wants to act like a child, that is her choice. But you are going to stay here with your family." Juliet decided not to point out that Cameron was more family to her than everyone in this room combined, with the exception of James of course. But she let her self be pushed onto the couch and opened the present that was thrust into her hand. It was from Remus.

She picked a small silver charm bracelet out of the box. As she looked at the six charms she noticed that they were a dog, a stag, a wolf , a mouse, a heart and a flower. Juliet smiled at James who was unwrapping an ugly scarf, before picking up the next box in her pile.

The second she lifted the lid, what looked like a butterfly flew out. It was slightly larger than a normal butterfly and it had intricate swirls covering its wings. It also seemed to be glowing.

"Who's it from?" James questioned, looking at the creature perched on Juliet's shoulder.

"Sirius. But what is it? I've never seen one."

"It's a flutterby. They're really rare. They are attracted to things of true beauty. No wonder it likes you." He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes, which were laced with jealousy. Juliet looked away and picked up the next package, from Lily.

It was a picture, taken the night of Slughorn's welcome back party. The night that Juliet discovered the secrets of the people who have since become her best friends. Juliet and Lily stood together in the center, beaming up at her. They were the only two dressed formally. Sirius stood next to Juliet, his eyes flicking from her face, then to the real Juliet. Remus stood next to him, a smile plastered across his face despite the pain that he must have been going through. The full moon was not visible through the window behind them, but Juliet knew that it was raising in the sky and the effect that it had on Remus. James was standing next to Lily, his arm draped over her shoulders, looking bored. Peter was on James' other side, looking out of place.

Juliet felt James move closer to her and looked up at him to realize that he was gazing down at the picture.

"You looked beautiful that night." He whispered in her ear. "I think that was the night that I realized. . ." He stopped and looked away.

"What?"

"That I loved you." He seemed embarrassed. He had never told her that he loved her. Not so bluntly. Juliet leaned forward without thinking and kissed him on the mouth. She heard a small "Oh" from her mother and pulled away, heat raising in her cheeks.

Juliet looked at her mother who had a smug smile spreading across her face as she continued to unwrap presents. Connor winked at her before hiding his head behind the Profit again. Bella was smirking at them. So much for everyone thinking James was just a friend, thought Juliet. After opening a package of chocolate frogs from Peter, which Juliet had been surprised to find considering his distinct dislike for her, and the newest record by her favorite band from Cameron, Juliet stood up.

"Where are you going?" Questioned her mother as she headed toward the door. " You haven't opened the gift from Connor and me." She handed Juliet an envelope. Juliet sighed but tore it open. Inside were two tickets.

"New York?" She read the tickets. "In April?" Her mother nodded.

"The wedding is going to be on April 16th. It is a few days after you come home for your Easter Vacation. Since we are going to be on our honeymoon for the remainder of your vacation, we thought that you would like to go on a trip as well. You always wanted to go to New York, and you can bring whoever you want. We got two tickets for Cameron as well, but don't tell her. She hasn't opened them yet." Juliet looked at her mother, who was simply beaming.

"Thank you mom." She hugged her, because she knew that it was what her mother wanted.

"You're welcome dear." She looked around the room, still beaming. "I'm going to make breakfast. Is everyone hungry?" Everyone said yes and Mary hurried to the kitchen. Connor put down his paper and mumbled something about coffee before following his fiancé out of the room, Jordan followed. Bellatrix looked from Juliet to James before standing and walking out as well, leaving them alone.

"I got you something." Said James, "It's upstairs, I didn't want to give it to you in front of everyone."

"You didn't have to. Taking me to France was enough." She said but James just shook his head. "Well this is for you." She handed him a long skinny package and he tore it open.

"You bought me a broom?"

"I know it isn't very personal, but you always complain about yours and the guy at the store said this was the best that they make."

"Yeah, it's a Jetson 400."

"Do you like it. I don't know anything about brooms, I can hardly fly. . . "

"I love it, but Juliet, these are really expensive."

"You're worth it."

"But Juliet-"

"Listen." She sighed "I don't know if you've notice but money isn't really an issue for me."

"I know but-"

"Just take the damn thing. If you don't want to use it that's fine, but I'm not taking it back."

"You are amazing. Do you know that?"

"So I've been told." She laughed before kissing him.

"Ahem." Juliet pulled away from James to see Cameron standing in the doorway with a smirk on her face. "Can I talk to you for a second."

" I'll be right back." She said to James, then followed Cameron upstairs to her bedroom.

"I knew you guys were together." Cameron laughed. "Why did you lie though? You know mom wouldn't have cared."

"I don't know. We decided to keep it quiet. Most of our friends don't even know." This wasn't really a lie. In truth nobody knew.

"Wait a second. Haven't I seen him around with that one girl you hang out with. Whats her name, the redhead. They looked pretty . . . Juliet . . .No" Cameron stopped, realizing what was going on. "You're not. . . he's not. . . is he dating her?"

" It's not like that."

"It's not? Are they together?"

"Well yeah, technically. But . . ."

"But what? He's cheating on your best friend. I can't believe you'd do that to anyone. Especially after-"

"But he loves me not her." Juliet was yelling now, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Then why doesn't he end it with her?"

"It will break her heat."

"Oh and finding out that her best friend is messing around with her boyfriend won't. You know how that feels Juliet."

"But that was different."

"It was exactly the same."

"You act like you are so much better than me. You think that I don't know that you screwed Lucius' best friend?" At that Cameron collapsed onto the bed in tears. "Cam? I'm sorry." She paused until Cameron calmed down again. "Cameron, what happened to you last night?"

"He raped me."

"Lucius?" Cameron shook her head.

"Jonathan."

"Cameron . . . I . . ." Juliet stopped, not knowing what to say. She wrapped her arms around her sister to let her cry on her shoulder. Cameron finally cried herself to sleep. Juliet put a pillow under her head and a blanket over top of her, unable to move her onto her bed. She kissed her sister on the forehead before leaving. Juliet focused on the name and face of Jonathan Morgan, there was a loud pop and a second later she was standing in what looked like a very large house. "Jonathan" She called angrily, her wand out, ready to curse him. When there was no answer she walked into another room and gasped.

Jonathan was laying on the floor, his face badly bruised, not moving. She ran over to him and pressed two fingers on his wrist. There was a weak pulse. She tightened her grip on his arm and apparated to St. Mungo's Hospital. The healers rushed him away leaving her with a nurse asking her questions which she could not answer.

"I Just found him like that." she said for what seemed like the hundredth time when healer finally approached her.

"How do you know Mr. . . Jonathan Morgan." He questioned, checking his file for the name.

"I'm a friend." She lied annoyed. "I've already told you people that."

"Do you know where his family is?"

"No. I've said that already too."

"Well you aren't really supposed to see him since you are not family. But since we cannot contact his family I can probably make an exception if you-"

"I don't want to see him." Juliet snapped. "I just want to know if he is going to be okay."

"Yes he will be fine. It appears that most of his wounds were not caused magically, like he was in a muggle fist fight. But it does seem that the crucio curse was performed on him several times as well."

"Yeah, right. So can I go?"

"Yes, but are you sure you don't want to-" Juliet didn't wait for him to finish before apparating back to her house.

"Juliet where have you. . . merlin, what happened?" James rushed over to her looking at the pajamas that she was still wearing , covered in Jonathan's blood.

"It's a long story. It's not my blood, don't worry. Did Cameron wake up yet?"

"I haven't seen her since you two went upstairs hours ago."

"Ok good. I'm going to go take a shower. We'll talk when I get out."

"Ok." He said weakly as she kissed him on the cheek and walked back upstairs.

After a long hot shower Juliet put on another pair of pajamas, considering it was already getting dark outside again, and walked into James' room without knocking. He was laying on the bed reading a quittich magazine.

"What if I had been getting dressed?"

"It wouldn't be anything I hadn't seen before." she replied with a smirk.

"So what happened today?"

"I can't tell you all the details, but somebody hurt Cameron last night. I went to uh. . . talk to him and I found him unconscious, almost dead. So I took him to St. Mungo's. That's pretty much all I can say."

"Ok." he nodded, understanding in a way that only somebody who had kept secrets could. "I was worried about you. You were gone for a long time."

"I know, I'm sorry." She kissed him.

"Wait." He pulled away then laughed as she pouted. "I still have to give you my gift." He got off the bed and dug a small box out of his suitcase. "Sorry I didn't have time to wrap it." Juliet lifted the lid to reveal a heart shaped locket.

"It's beautiful."

"There's more." he took out his wand, pointed it at the locket and said"Verus Amor ". Instantly it opened. On one side there was a muggle picture of the two of them kissing. She remembered James asking a tourist to take it when they were in France. On the other side was an inscription that read '**To Juliet, You are the love of my life, now and forever. James** '

"I love you" She whispered into his ear before kissing him again. When she fell onto his bed she landed on something. She pulled a shimmering silver cloak out from under her. "Is this what I think it is?" She asked.

"It's an invisibility cloak, my dad sent it to me."

"Wow."

"Yeah, he sent a note with it. Apparently it's some family heirloom. But I've never seen it before." He moved it off the bed. "We can have some fun with it at school." She giggled as he kissed her again.


	26. Chapter 25

"Mom, do I really have to go to this thing tonight?" Juliet whined. She was sitting in front of a mirror watching her long blonde hair curl with a wave of her mother's wand.

"Of course you have to go. It's your grandfather's annual charity ball." Mary waved her wand, changing her daughter's hairstyle again. "Plus you haven't seen him in months, don't you miss him?"

"Well yeah, but it's not like I'll be able to talk to him at the ball. He's going to be busy."

"I don't care, you are going." Mary and turned Juliet's hair dark brown by mistake. "Look what you made me do."

"Holt shit." They both turned to see Cameron standing in the doorway.

"Watch your language" Her mother demanded. "Have you picked out your dress yet?"

"Yeah it's laying on my bed." Mary smiled at her daughter's before rushing off to approve Cameron's dress.

"We do look alike don't we." said Cameron, standing behind Juliet so both of their faces were reflected in the mirror. They were practically identical.

"No shit." Cameron pulled out her wand and pointed it at Juliet's head. Instantly her hair grew a few inches shorter and the curls vanished, making the two girls look even more alike. "What are you playing at?" Cameron flashed a wicked smile before making her hair long, blonde and curly. She looked exactly like Juliet had minutes ago.

"Change clothes with me,"

"What?"

"Just do it." Juliet sighed but slipped out of her jeans and pulled on Cameron's sweat pants. They quickly switched shirts and Cameron sat down in front of the mirror as their mother walked back into the room.

"Oh good, you changed your hair back." Said Mary resuming her place behind her daughter. "Dark hair just doesn't work on you. What?" Both girls started laughing hysterically. "Whatever. Cameron I keep telling you, that dress does nothing for you. I took out that blue one for you to wear."

"Okay." Muttered Juliet.

"Juliet have you picked out a dress yet?" Cameron glanced at Juliet who shook her head.

"No"

"Well I was thinking that you could wear that pink one that you wore to your birthday party."

"Yeah sure." Said Cameron trying to grimace at the idea of wearing pink.

"Uh didn't you leave that dress at school. You wore it to Slughorn's party, remember." Juliet pictured the dress that was now torn to shreds and covered in dirt and blood. She had been wearing it when she had been attacked by the werewolf, who happened to be her best friend.

"Oh right." Said Cameron who had never gotten the full story of why Juliet hadn't shown up for the welcome back party.

"Okay, well what about that purple gown. It looks beautiful on you. Doesn't it Cameron?" Juliet nodded. With one more wave of her wand Mary decided that who she thought was Juliet's hair was perfect and pulled her other daughter in front of the mirror.

A half an hour later Juliet walked into her room to find Cameron, who still had long blonde hair, putting on make-up.

"We can't seriously go to the party like this." Said Juliet

"Sure we can. Our own mother didn't even notice."

"Incase you haven't noticed, our mother isn't the most observant person."

"Come on where's your since of adventure?" Cameron finally turned to face her sister. Juliet sighed.

"I never wear that much eyeliner." Cameron smiled.

"I love you Julie." she kissed her sister on the cheek and started wiping off make up.

"Hey Cam, are you okay?" Juliet asked softly. "It's only been a few days since. . . you know. And we go back to school the day after tomorrow. So if you wanted to-"

"I'm fine."

"Cameron-"

"I said I was fine."

"But I don't believe you. It's okay to not be fine."

"Moping around the house isn't going to change anything."

"Either is pretending it didn't happen."

"I don't want to talk about it." Cameron turned her back to Juliet.

"Okay, but don't lie to me anymore. I know you're not fine." Cameron turned around and hugged her sister, tears running down her face.

"You look pretty." Said Cam wiping her eyes and causing Juliet to laugh.

"I look like you."

"Yeah, but I never look like that. You make me look . . . nice."

"You are nice." Juliet laughed then added "When you want to be."

"Here let me do your make up. Maybe you can pull off the natural look, but I can't"

"Once again we're twins."

"Yeah but you're just so bubbly it works on you." Juliet rolled her eyes and looked in the mirror. Now she looked even more like Cameron with her eyes circled in dark make up. "Okay, now it's your turn. Be nice, remember how much you love me." An evil smile spread across Juliet's face.

"I look amazing." Said Cam, looking in the mirror ten minutes later. "I even kind of like the pink eyeshadow. Tell anyone I said that and I'll murder you in your sleep." she pointed a threatening finger at Juliet.

There was a knock on the door and Cam answered it to find James standing in the doorway.

"Oh hi."

"Hey you look great. You two Cameron." He said glancing at Juliet. "Your mom sent me up to see if you guys are almost ready. She wants to leave soon."

"Yeah" said Cameron. "We Just need to put on our dresses, we'll be right down okay honey."

"Okay." He have her a weird look before turning and walking back down stairs.

"Honey?" Said Juliet smirking, Cam shrugged. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea."

"We've been over this. Nobody's going to notice.

"I know, but what about James. Do you really want to be stuck dancing with my boyfriend all night."

"What do you think I'd try something with him?"

"No I think he'll try something with you. You are his girlfriend. . . I mean I am. . . wait I'm confusing myself. This is a bad idea." Cameron just laughed.

"We can always just tell him."

"Won't people wonder why you're dancing with my boyfriend."

"Nobody is going to know he's your boyfriend, except Mary who won't notice."

"But you know these people. They see a new face and ask a thousand questions."

"We'll both introduce him as a friend."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Juliet sighed.

"No." Cam laughed. "But I _am_ sure that it will be fun. A real way to liven up the ball. Now go get dressed. Juliet sighed again but obeyed.

A few minuets later Juliet walked down stairs to find everybody all ready. Mary was wearing a maroon gown and Bella was wearing a slinky black dress. James looked handsome in his dress robes and he had slicked back is usually unruly hair. And Cameron looked exactly like her, it was like looking in a mirror, except Cam looked prettier than Juliet felt she ever could.

"Ready?" asked Mary, obviously excited. Everyone said that they were ready. "Ok then, Juliet you take James, and Cameron you take Bella. I'll see you in front of your grandfather's house." There was a pop and she was gone. Juliet gripped Bella's arm and Cam took James'. A second later they were all standing in front of a large brick house.

"James can I talk to you for a second?" Asked Juliet. James looked confused but nodded. "It's me, Juliet"

"What?"

"Cam and I traded places, I'm Juliet."

"Holy shit, Julie, you look exactly like her."

"Yeah I know. We just thought we should tell you. Do you mind walking in with Cam so Mary doesn't ask any questions. Once we get inside we can dance together and stuff."

"Uh, yeah okay." He said glancing at Cameron and Bella who were having pretty much the same conversation.

"Mary!" A tall man, who's white hair was the only giveaway to his true age walk toward them and embraced Mary. "Cameron, Juliet." He hugged his two granddaughters.

"James this is my grandfather." Said Cameron. " And Grandfather this is James."

"And this is Bellatrix." said Juliet.

"And who is this?" He questioned looking at Connor.

"Father," Said Mary looking nervous. "This is Connor, my Fiancé" He looked surprised but recovered quickly.

"You didn't tell me you were getting married."

"I know, I'm sorry. It just happened and I wanted to tell you in person."

"Jason Monroe" He held his hand out to Connor who shook it.

"Connor Badgley"

"Well shall we all go inside, it is freezing out here."

"You didn't tell me your grandfather was Jason Monroe." James hissed at Juliet.

"You never asked" Juliet replied with a smug smile. Not only was her grandfather known for inventing the Jetson broom series and for writing the best selling book '_Quittich, the Game of Champions'_, he was once and still was one of the most popular Quittich players in the world.

"I cannot believe I am going to a party at James Monroe's house. Wait until I tell the quittich team." Juliet giggled.

"Well are we going in or what?" Cameron called to them holding her hand out to James. He walked up to her and linked his arm through hers.

"Cameron, how are you?" . . ."Where have you been? We've missed you.". . ."You have grown so much." Juliet greeted each person with an equally generic answer, making her way through the crowd. Finally she found James, still with Cameron, and led him to the dance floor.

"So how are you enjoying your first Grand Charity Ball?"

"It's alright." He shrugged. "I don't think anyone has actually noticed me."

"Trust me, they're noticing." she glared in the direction of a group of teenage girls who were staring curiously at James. The night wore on, and few questions were asked about James.

"Julie" Said Cameron, pulling her sister off the dance floor. "I want to switch back."

"What?"

"And I want to borrow James for a few minutes."

"Ok slow down, whats going on?" Juliet asked as she was pulled into the restroom.

"Do you remember Adam Harvey?"

"The jerk who you were in love with for like three years? What about him?"

"He's here."

"And. . ."

"And I want to get back at him."

"By parading around my boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"And you see nothing at all wrong with that?" Juliet raised her eyebrows.

"Well. . . you know what an asshole this guy was to me right?"

"I know but. . ."

"Wait, you could pretend to be me. Then you could make the whole me and James thing look even more real."

"No."Cameron pouted.

"Why not?"

"If you want to make this guy jealous, that's fine with me. And if James lets you use him to do it, I could really care less, but I am _not_ getting involved."

"Fine" Cameron sighed, changing her hair back to normal. Juliet did the same. Minutes later the emerged from the restroom dressed as themselves. "Hey James, can you do me a favor?" Cameron asked.

"Sure"

"Oh it's me Cam, we switched back."

"Oh," He looked confused, "What do you want me to do?" She explained and he didn't look happy but he agreed. While they were off making the boy Cameron had chased after for years jealous, Juliet was left alone.

"Hey." She heard a voice behind her and turned to see who it was. He was tall, with dark blonde hair and green eyes that Juliet had once fell in love with.

"Ian? Hi" She answered nervously, cursing herself for not thinking that he would be here.

"How have you been? We miss you at school."

"Um good, and you?"

"Pretty good. Do you want to take a walk?" She looked around the room for James or someone else to get her out of it but couldn't find anyone.

"I don't-"

"Julie, please. I really think we need to talk." Juliet painfully remembered their last conversation.

_"Ian?"_

_"Yeah?" She was sitting on his lap, on the dock, outside his house. They were wrapped in blankets, watching the sunrise. It was the most beautiful thing Juliet had ever seen and she was glad to be sharing it with him._

_"What's going to happen when I leave?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"I mean, things are going to change."_

_"They don't have to."_

_"I'm leaving for England in like twelve hours. Things are going to change whether we want them to or not.."_

_"We'll still write, and I'll visit, and so can you."_

_"It's not the same."_

_"Are you trying to break up with me?" He asked softly, as if he was afraid of the answer. Juliet shook her head, tears were rolling down her cheeks. "It will work. We'll make it work."_

_"I'm scared" she whispered._

_"Of what, moving?" She shook her head again._

_"Of losing you, of losing what we have. I love you." He kissed her, and she could tell he was trying not to cry as well. _

_"It's only a year. Then you can come back here and we can be together." This time she nodded and kissed him. "I love you."_

Juliet thought of all the letters they had written. The small pile that were in her trunk back at the castle. The latest one still unopened. He had stopped writing soon after she had. Not long before she first kissed James. Then she thought of the few times that she had kissed Sirius. She didn't think of it as cheating at the time. She had never mentioned to her friends that she had a boyfriend back home. She wondered how long it took Ian to realize that it was over. They never officially decided to end it.

Juliet nodded and followed him outside. It was cold, she hadn't thought to bring a Jacket. He took of his coat and put it over her shoulders. They walked in silence for a long moment.

"What happened to us?" He asked.

"We grew apart."

"Yeah I guess. I loved you so much."

"I loved you to. But-" She said sadly

"I still love you."

"I-" before she could finish he was kissing her. Without thinking about it she kissed him back. He was familiar, and she realized that she really did miss him. She didn't pull away until she heard movement behind them.

"Oh." James was standing there, staring at them with a blank face.

"James." Juliet took a step toward him but he turned and walked away. She started after him but a pair of arms wrapped around her waist.

"You have a boyfriend." His voice wasn't accusing, it was sad. Juliet nodded. "I'm sorry that I-"

"Don't be. I shouldn't have kissed you back. You didn't know."

"Yes I did." He said and she looked up at him in confusion. "I saw you together in Pairs, a week ago."

"You. . ."

"I thought if I could just talk to you tonight, then maybe you would. . . I don't know, realize you still love me."

"I'm sorry." She didn't know what else to say.

"For what?"

"For losing what we had together."

"We can get it back." For the first time there was hope in his eyes.

"We can't" She shook her head almost wishing he was right. "I love him."

"Then go find him." He said Sadly but gave her a weak smile. Juliet kissed him on the cheek before rushing after James. She found Cameron and asked her if she had seen him.

"Yeah I saw him, and he looked mad. But he disapparated before I could talk to him. What happened?" Juliet shook her head, not wanting to explain and apparated back to her house to find it empty and James' stuff missing.


	27. Chapter 26

"Mom, are you sure you really want to go to this dance. It's just going to be a bunch of teenagers." Sighed Cameron as she carried her trunk down the grand flight of stairs, wondering why they didn't have a butler or something.

"The invitation said that it was for students and families." Mary replied, meeting her daughter's eyes through the mirror in which she was checking her hair.

"Okay, then why is Connor coming? He's not family." her mother spun around to glare at her as she said this.

"Yes he is. Or at least he will be soon enough."

"I'm not calling him dad, you know." said Cameron, glaring back at Mary then adding "Actually calling him brother would make more since. He-"

"Cameron Elizabeth, stop that right now. Connor knows about your father and he would never try to replace him."

"What exactly does he know about my father?" Mary's face grew pale.

"Cameron, don't" Juliet said quietly from behind her. Cameron ignored her sister and continued.

"Does he know that you left him? Does he know that you wouldn't even let him have any contact with his daughters? Did you tell him that you lied about your husband's death? You told everybody that he was killed in that car accident. You let your own daughters grieve for a father who was still alive. Does your precious fiancee know that?"

"You don't know what you're talking about."

"I talked to him Mother. I talked to the man that you told me died three years ago."

"Yes I lied." Mary had tears rolling down her cheeks, but she didn't seem to notice or care. Her eyes flicked back and forth between Cameron and Juliet. "But I did it to protect you."

"How was telling us that our father died supposed to protect us?" Juliet asked quietly, not looking at her mother.

"Sit down" Mary sat in a chair and gestured to the couch across from her.

"I don't want to sit dammit, just tell us." Yelled Cameron, glaring at her mother.

"Please." Juliet glanced at Cameron who nodded. They both sat across from their mother.

"Did I ever tell you that you were born in England?" they both shook their heads. "Well we moved to France, a few months after you were born."

"What does this have to do with our father?"

"Please, just let me explain. There was a . . . movement, for lack of a better word. I didn't know much about it, but people were dying. Your father insisted we move. He said he didn't want us caught in the crossfire. The movement hadn't reached France, so we soon forgot about it. Years past and your father became more and more distant. He was almost never home, and when he was, he locked himself in his office. I suspected him of cheating, but didn't say anything. Finally, fourteen years after we had left England, rumors of a revolution reached France. Whole family's were being murdered. There were whispers of a leader, Tom Riddle. He was supposedly cruller than the other's. He killed mercilessly. The Ministry tried to stop him, but failed many times. "

"I still don't understand what any of this has to do with dad?"

" By this time your father was disappearing for weeks at a time." Mary continued, ignoring Cameron's comment. "I found a ticket in his coat pocket It was for a train, in England."

"So you thought he was part of this movement?" Juliet looked at her mother for the first time since she had started. Mary nodded.

"But that doesn't give you any right to pretend he was dead."

"But he was." Insisted Mary. "Andrew Thomson, your father, no longer existed. Nobody even knew of Andrew Thomson any more, he changed his name. Later I found out that he had changed it back to the name he had been born with, the name that was whispered about in fear, Tom Riddle." Juliet wanted to yell at her mother. Tell her that she was wrong. That her father could never kill anyone, let alone hundreds of people. But she couldn't. She couldn't talk or move or breathe.

"No" Cameron spoke Juliet's thoughts. "You're lying."

"Why would I lie?""

"To make yourself look good. That's all you ever care about. You needed a reason to send our father away and you used this movement as an excuse. There are still rumor's of a revolution, but I've never once heard of a Tom Riddle."

"That isn't what he is called anymore. His followers, they call him. . .Lord Voldemort" she whispered the name. This _was_ a name that Cameron had heard. Though very few dared to say it. She had indeed heard rumors of Lord Voldemort and his following. They had grown powerful in the last few years, and though they hadn't yet attacked the Ministry, many feared that they would soon.

"Why?" Juliet said quietly, finally able to speak. "Why would he do that?"

"Your father had many secrets, and he was very good at keeping them. But one thing that he had much difficult hiding, was his lust for power." Mary looked at her daughters and sighed. "I'm sorry, I was planing on telling you all of this after you were done with school, let you make your own decision about him. I wish that none of this would have happened, but I don't regret my decision to leave him." when neither Juliet or Cameron spoke Mary stood up. " I don't think that tonight is the best night for a party. If you guys decide to go back tonight, say goodbye before you leave." she left the room, leaving Juliet and Cameron alone in silence.

"Cam?" Juliet broke the silence.

"Yeah?"

"What now?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, he's still our father right." Cameron nodded, confused. "So does that mean we're on his side."

"No." Cameron took her sister's hand. "But it does mean that we are going to have to choose a side." Then Cameron remembered that she no longer had a choice, she had given it up by saving her sister's life. She was on her father's side whether she liked it or not.

"_One drop of this will save Juliet" _

"_What is it?" questioned Sirius _

"_It is water from the shores of Avalon, gathered by the Lady of the Lake herself." he replied "But before we can use it you must swear that you, and any children that you may have, will always remain loyal to me."_

"_What?" _

"_Cameron, I need you to make the unbreakable vow."_

"_Of course" _

"_Cameron," Said Sirius, pulling her out of her father's earshot. "This doesn't feel right. He's your father, you shouldn't have to vow to remain loyal to him."_

"_I don't have a choice." She replied, walking back to her father and holding out her hand._

"Where are you going?" Asked Juliet when Cameron suddenly stood up.

"To get ready for the party." She said, fighting the tears that were burning behind her eyelids.

"You're still going?"

"I'm sure as hell not staying here." Cameron flashed a sad smile before going upstairs. Juliet sat for a moment, alone in silence. She thought about what Cameron had said after what happened with Jonathan. About how wishing something didn't happen, couldn't change anything. And she realized that she was right. Juliet pulled herself off the couch and went upstairs to get ready for the New Years Eve party.


	28. Chapter 27

"Juliet!" She turned when she heard her name and was almost knocked over by the force of Lily's hug.

"I missed you too." Juliet laughed.

"I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. We need to talk. Have you seen James?" Lily seemed flustered and was speaking at least twice as fast as usual.

"No I haven't seen him." Juliet answered ignoring the pang of guilt. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's great but. . ." Lily looked nervous for a second then took Juliet's hand and pulled her into an empty classroom. "Okay, I don't know how to say this. I'm kind of freaking out and I needed to talk to someone. I figured you would be the best person. Besides the obvious of you being my best friend, you're a little more . . . experienced and-"

"Ok what are we talking about?"

"I want to have sex with James." Juliet felt all the air leave her body.

"Oh."

"Tonight."

"Ok then." she didn't know what to say. The only thing else she could think of was "NO!" But that would cause to many questions.

"So do you have any advice?"

"Advice?"

"I mean I've never really done it before and I'm not sure if . . ."

"Well it's a pretty basic concept." Juliet snapped then instantly regretted it. Lily's cheek flushed. "Sorry, it's just, I've had a rough day, my mother's exhausting." She tried to laugh but Lily still looked hurt. "Ok listen, the first time is always a bit weird. Just relax, and let it happen. It'll be fine." Lily smiled.

"Thanks." They hugged. Juliet should have known something was up when she saw what Lily was wearing. Her dress was red and quite a bit more revealing than anything she usually wore.

"Let's get back to the party."

"Hey, there are my two favorite girls." Sirius laughed as he stepped between Juliet and Lily, and threw his arms over their shoulders.

"Hey." Said Lily. "Have you seen James?"

"Yeah, he's talking to moony and wormtail over there." he gestured to the corner of the crowded great hall.

"Ok." She glanced at Juliet who tried to give her an encouraging smile as she walked away.

"You look beautiful." said Sirius, leaving his arm draped over Juliet's shoulder and admiring her low cut black dress. "You wanna dance?"

"Sure." They walked onto the dance floor and Juliet wrapped her arms around Sirius' neck. She laid her head on his shoulder and watched James and Lily talking. She didn't know weather to feel jealous or guilty.

"Did you miss me?" Sirius whispered in her ear.

"You have no idea?" She leaned back so she could look him in the eye and smirked. Then he kissed her and all thoughts of James and Lily were lost. For now anyway.

-------------------------------------

"Hey Cameron." She inwardly groaned when she heard the voice that she had been waiting for all night.

"Hi Lucius."

"Can we go somewhere and talk?" Cameron shrugged and threw an apologetic glance at the guy who she had been dancing with.

"Whats up?" She followed him through the crowd and outside.

"How are you?"

"I'm fine." She sighed, not wanting to go through this again.

"I just wanted to tell you that he's not coming back to school for a few weeks at least." Cameron felt a wave of relief wash through her. Then curiosity.

"Why not?"

"He's in the hospital."Lucius took a step away from her and looked at the ground, guiltily. "I put him there."

"When?" Cameron could hear her voice shaking.

"That night, when I left, remember." He looked at her and she nodded. "I was just so angry at him for hurting you. I just went to talk to him, scare him a little maybe. But then he said all of these horrible things about you and I just lost it." Cameron took his hand, it was shaking. "When I left, I thought he was dead." He had tears in his eyes. He looked like a scared child.

"But he's alive right?" Even after everything that had happened, Cameron felt fear for John. Lucius nodded.

"I went back, the next day, after I wasn't so angry, to make sure he was okay. But he wasn't there. So I went to the hospital and they said some girl had found him and brought him in."

"Probably a nanny." Cameron said to herself but Lucius heard.

"Nanny? Why would he have a nanny?"

"He had a son. That's what we were fighting about."

"A Son? Morgan? But he never. . . merlin, if I would have . . ."

"But you didn't. He's going to be fine, right?" Lucius nodded.

"But the girl, who brought him in, she told them she was a friend. And the way they described her, it sounded like your sister."

"Juliet? Why would she . . ."

"The same reason I did. Only, I got to him first."

"Right." Cam sighed. "That doesn't matter now. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just shaken up a bit. I think I hurt him pretty bad."

"Okay, well, lets go back inside then." as soon as they were inside Cameron felt someone grab her wrist. She jumped away, then relaxed when she realized that it had been Bella.

"What's with you lately. First you disappear for a whole night, then I don't even see you all day. Your mom finally told me to leave without you. Now you're all jumpy."

"Sorry." Cameron hadn't told Bella about what had happened with John. She planed on doing it eventually but she wasn't up to reliving the event again, just yet. "You look great by the way. I think you are the only person in the world who could look sluty in a white dress."

"Thank you." Both girls laughed. "Now come on, you owe me a dance."

---------------------------------

The night wore on and Juliet was glad to have Sirius as a distraction. The idea of James sleeping with Lily made her sick. Finally Juliet realized that there was only one thing that she could do. Find James, and ask, no, beg him not to have sex with Lily. It seemed like a fairly good plan until Juliet took into account how mad at her he was and of course the small role that teenage male hormones might play. But she had to try.

"I have to use the restroom." She told Sirius, when she saw Lily walk away from James to get some punch. "We need to talk." She said, walking up to James.

"No, we don't." He replied, turning away.

"Please James."

"What is there to talk about?"

"I love you." She said in a hushed voice. This wasn't what he had expected her to say. He glared at her for a moment before nodding. He led her into the same empty classroom the she had been in earlier with Lily.

"What?" he crossed his arms and sat on top of the teacher's desk. Juliet didn't know where to start, so she decided to go with the most pressing issue.

"Lily wants to have sex with you tonight."

"What?" His eyebrows shot up. He looked like he wanted to laugh.

"She told me." She shuffled her feet uncomfortably and James seemed to re-compose himself.

"And what does this have to do with you?" Juliet felt like she had been hit in the stomach.

"I don't want you to do it." She said quietly, not looking at him. She didn't want to see the look of satisfaction in his eyes.

"So you're thinking about me again, now that you're not snogging someone else."

"You have absolutely no right to be jealous." Juliet yelled, not being able to help herself. "You have another girlfriend James, remember."

"Yeah, I do. And you have no right to tell me not to sleep with her." He Jumped of the desk and put his face close to her's. "Especially not when you are all over my best mate."

"So you're allowed to have a real relationship but I can't?" The question hung in the air as they glared at each other, faces inches apart. Suddenly the door flew open and the room filled with light.

"Shit sorry I. . . what the hell?" It was Remus, with Jackson standing right behind him. Juliet took a step away from James and looked at the ground.

"I'm gonna go." She heard Jackson say. The door shut behind him.

"What's going on?" Said Remus, looking back and forth between his two best friends. There was no answer. "You know, I kind of thought there was something going on. I've seen how you two look at each other. And then when you disappeared over the holiday. Is it serious?"

Juliet and James looked at each other. He nodded. Juliet smiled, knowing that she was, if not totally forgiven, then still loved.

"Don't tell them." She said, looking at Remus, practically begging with her eyes.

"I don't know what you two are playing at." He sighed. "But I won't tell." Juliet hugged him.

"Thank you"

"Get back to the party before you're missed." He said sternly.

"Okay, just give us a second." Remus nodded and left them alone. "I'm sorry." Said Juliet. "Ian was still my boyfriend when I moved here. We stopped talking after awhile, but no one ever officially ended it. He said that he wanted us to try again then he kissed me."

"You kissed him back."

"He was my first love James." She took his hands and resisted when he tried to pull away. "But after we saw you, I told him that I didn't love him anymore. That I was in love with you." James' eyes softened. He kissed her.

"So what now?" he asked, leaning his forehead against her's.

"You go back to Lily and I'll go back to Sirius."

"And after the party?"

"I don't know, James. Do what you think is best." She kissed him again before going back out to the party.


	29. Chapter 28

"Three . . . two . . . one . . . HAPPY NEW YEAR!" The crowd screamed as a whole. Huge, colorful fireworks burst in the magic ceiling of the great hall and streamers fell from nowhere onto the group. Juliet wrapped her arms around Sirius' neck as he lifted her and spun around. Her lips found his and he lost his balance, sending them both tumbling onto the floor.

"Having fun?" The voice instantly made Juliet stop laughing. She looked up at Lily and James. James held out a hand and Juliet took it to pull herself off the floor. She glanced over his shoulder and saw Remus watching skeptically.

"Yeah, we are." Sirius laughed, wrapping his arm around Juliet's waist and kissing her hair. She looked at Lily instead of James and gave, what she hoped was a convincing smile.

--------------------

"Happy New Year!" Cameron grabbed Lucius and kissed him on the mouth. A slight "oh" escaped his lips. Cameron giggled and kissed him harder.

--------------------

"Shit, ouch!" Juliet pulled a book out from underneath her and threw it onto Sirius' bedroom floor.

"Sorry about that." Sirius laughed, pulling off his shirt and falling back on top of her. His fingers found the zipper to her dress and he slid it off of her. When Sirius stood to undo his belt Juliet made the mistake of turning her head. She quickly turned away from James' bed and squeezed her eyes shut as Sirius kissed her again. But the image of the broom that she had given James, sitting on his unmade bed burned itself into her mind. Without conscious meaning to, Juliet slightly pulled away and Sirius noticed her hesitation.

"I-" Juliet started but he cut her off.

"It's fine."

"I'm sorry." She looked at him expecting him to look angry of embarrassed but he was smiling. "It's just. . ."

"You don't have to explain." he kissed her forehead before rolling off from on top of her. "I'll be right back." he said heading toward the bathroom.

"Actually I think I should go." Juliet picked her dress up off the floor and slid it back on.

"You don't have to go, we could, you know, just hang out." Juliet smiled but shook her head.

"I'll see you tomorrow okay." She kissed him before walking out the door leaving him to stare after her. She felt guilty about leaving him like that, but she couldn't be with Sirius when she was thinking about James, it wasn't fair to either of them.

------------------------

"Stop!" Cameron gasped and pushed Lucius off from on top of her. He rolled off the couch and landed on the common room floor with a thud. "I'm sorry, I -I can't" she noticed that her cheeks were wet and realized that she was crying.

"It's okay." Lucius reached for her hand but she pulled it away.

"I have to go." She stepped over him as she rushed out of the common room. "No it's not okay." She mumbled angrily to herself.

"Are you okay?" Cameron jumped at the sound of the voice but it took her only a second to know who was speaking.

"What are you doing wandering the halls this late? It's against the rules you know." She smirked at her sister.

"I couldn't sleep." Juliet shrugged.

"No, you couldn't sleep with_ him_."

"Why do you always have to be like that?"

"Like what? Honest?"

"No cynical"

"Juliet, you love James, its obvious. And when you love someone it's _supposed_ to be hard to sleep with someone else."

"Well it doesn't seem like he has any issues with it."

"You know what?"

"What?" Juliet sighed.

"Maybe you were better off with Ian." Juliet almost laughed.

"You hated Ian."

"Yeah because he was a snobby prick."

"You think I should be with a snobby prick?"

"Better that than a selfish bastard and an arrogant playboy." This time Juliet did laugh.

"He wanted me back."

"Ian?"

"Yeah, he kissed me at Grandfather's ball."

"Is that why James got all pissy and left?" Juliet nodded. "What did you say?"

"That I loved James."

"But you thought about it didn't you, going back to Ian, I mean." Juliet nodded. "What did you see in him?"

"I don't know. To everyone else he was the classic rich young wizard, who never has to work a day in his life yet always gets whatever he wants, via his last name and his pureblood."

"That is exactly what he is."

"That is exactly what we are to. Isn't it?"

"Maybe. But we don't flaunt it."

"Either did he. At least not around me."

"He didn't deserve you." Cameron sighed.

"After everything that happened, I think that it was me who didn't deserve him."

"You cheating on him once, it's not like he was a saint either." Juliet sighed. "That's why I don't understand why you are doing this with James. You know what it can do to someone when two people that you trust betray you."

"This is different."

"How? Because now you're on the other side. Because you love James, just like you loved Matt." Hearing the name instantly brought tears to Juliet's eyes. Cam's words hung in the air for a moment before Juliet nodded.

"You're right."

"So..."

"So it doesn't change anything. I love James and so does my best friend." Juliet sighed. "I know its wrong, but I love him Cam, you have to understand." Cameron shrugged.

"I hope you know what your doing Julie, don't forget what happened when Ian found out." Juliet took a deep breath. She knew that she could never forget the hurt look in Ian's eyes when he had caught Juliet in bed with his best friend, Matt, nor could she ever forget the events that followed.

_"Ian, please, wait up."_ _she ran out of the pool house and chased her boyfriend into the woods that lined her backyard._

_"Leave me alone Julie"_

_"Jules" She ignored Matt's voice but Ian didn't. He stopped running so fast that Juliet almost ran into him._ _He spun around, his eyes focused on something just behind her and the anger turned into fear. His hand wrapped around something in his pocket and Juliet knew, even before he removed it that it was his wand. She turned around slowly and almost screamed. A tall man, his face covered with his black, hooded cloak, was standing not ten feet away._

_"Julie, run." Ian hissed in her ear. She wanted to, she really did, but she couldn't move._

_"Come with me." said the man, taking a step toward her. It took her a moment to realize that he was speaking in Parsaltongue. Suddenly Matt ran into the clearing, tripping over a root. _

_"Ian, I. . . Ma-"_

_"Avada Kadavera"_

"Julie, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"before she could finish an angry scream filled the deserted corridor.

"You have failed me!" Yelled a cold voice.

"I'm s-sorry m-master, it won't happen a-again"

"You are right, I will be sure of that" A body flew down the corridor, between Cameron and Juliet and slammed into the wall behind them. There was a moan as the body hit the floor. Juliet screamed and Cam's hand flew to her sisters mouth to silence her. A dark figure appeared at the end of the hallway, Cameron raised her wand but it instantly flew out of her hand. The figure moved closer, catching Cam's wand and releasing a sardonic laugh. Juliet's hand found her sisters and she was instantly flooded with warmth. As the figure drew closer the feeling grew stronger and hotter, but it didn't hurt, she found it strangely comforting. Juliet could feel the heat burning her skin as the corridor filled with a white light.

"No" He spoke in Parsaltongue, in a voice that Juliet clearly remembered from that night in the woods. The figure released a high pitched scream as he turned and ran away. The room went black and both sisters collapsed onto the floor.


End file.
